A study into how the national human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination drive was carried out in schools across Lahore last September has revealed a gap that health authorities should not ignore. A study involving interviews with school principals and coordinators in 15 schools found that the campaign’s success depended less on vaccine supply than on how well each school communicated with parents beforehand. This important task was left entirely to individual schools, with no standard protocol from health authorities to guide them.

Schools that held parent briefings and distributed clear consent forms reported far fewer refusals. Schools that sent only a brief notice to the parents reported more confusion and resistance. Coordinators in low-cost private and government schools, often working with fewer resources, were left to come up with their own explanations for a vaccine that many parents still knew little about.

This matters because HPV vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan is often tied to the vaccine’s association with a sexually transmitted infection. Malaysia offers a useful comparison. When it introduced school-based HPV vaccination in 2010, parental consent reached 96-98 per cent each year, largely because the programme paired vaccination with sustained and structured communication with parents through schools.

As Pakistan’s campaign expands beyond Lahore, the relevant departments should not leave school-to-family communication up to chance. A simple and standardised protocol should accompany every phase of the rollout, maximising the drive’s success.

Shab Noor
Lahore

Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2026