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the girl child after vaccination for the next 20 years when they reached the stage to conceive and deliver.

Studies indicate that Eswatini is among the countries with the highest cervical cancer rates in the world. The country’s National Cancer Control Unit states that 59.3 per cent of female cancer cases in the country were cervical cancer, followed by prostate cancer at 30.4 per cent and breast cancer at 19.5 per cent.

Prevention

Experts recommended that Eswatini should prioritise prevention strategies with prophylactic HPV vaccine and screening for cervical lesions.

During the 2022/2023 budget

speech, the Minister of Finance, Neal Rijkenberg, announced E20 million (US$1.4 million) for the HPV vaccine rollout. “Following the high burden of HPV infections and cervical cancer cases in the country, the government has budgeted E20 million and plans to introduce the HPV vaccine in schools for young girls between the ages of nine to 14 years,” the minister said.

Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Health Dr Simon Zwane confirmed that the ministry had received its entire budget for the introduction of the vaccine.

He revealed that the E20 million would enable the country to purchase 80 000 vials of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, Nkosi said her ministry values research and is inclined towards evidence-based practice and decision-making. Nkosi said

the National Health Research and Innovation Department (NHRID) was mandated to facilitate, coordinate, guide, monitor and enthuse over health research as well as build health research capacity, productivity and culture in Eswatini.

Review

Nkosi said her ministry through NHRID in collaboration with ICAP led the review of the NHRA.

She said the review process followed a systematic process which involved multi-stakeholder engagement, including Ministry of Health programmes, partners and researchers through workshops where inputs were collected to inform the NHRA.

The minister noted that the research agenda was an important document that presented national health research priorities for the next five years.