Over 3200 girls have received Human Pappiloma Virus (HPV) vaccine at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH).MTRH is the only public medical institution in the country to offer the said services for free.

According to the coordinator of the programme, Dr. Hillary Mabeya, who is also an Obstetric and Gynaecology specialist at the Hospital and teaches at Moi University, the exercise which came to an end on August 29, 2012 was hugely successful. “We inoculated over 3200 girls, aged between nine and fourteen years.”

He thanked several organizations which contributed to the feat achieved led by MTRH, Merck who are the manufacturer of GARDASIL Vaccine through Axios International coordinating Gardasil Access Program, Moi University; Department of Reproductive Health and Ghent University in Belgium.

Merck's Gardasil protects against four strains of HPV, including HPV 16, which is linked with cervical and throat cancers. The Brand's site says the vaccines protects against 4 types of HPV in total, including the ones that cause 75% of cervical cancers. Gardasil also protects against genital warts.

The second dose is ongoing. The Programme is scheduled to end in February in 2013 when all the enrolled girls will get their third and last jab.

The Hospital does Cervical Cancer Screening where an average of 80 women is seen every month. In case the results are positive, the patients are referred to AMPATH Centre-Hematology Department for further investigations and management.