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Transcript/ScriptUSAGM SHARE
((PLAYBOOK SLUG: MALAWI GIRLS VACCINE CANCERS (TV/R)
HEADLINE: MSF in Malawi Takes HPV Vaccine to Primary School Girls
TEASER:
PUBLISHED AT: 03/20/2023 at 1:45pm
BYLINE: Lameck Masina
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Machinga district
VIDEOGRAPHER: Lameck Masina
VIDEO EDITOR:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Schearf, sv
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO X
VID APPROVED BY: 2:55
TYPE: TVPKGN
EDITOR NOTES: Radio intros scripted below for production to version for radio))
((INTRO))
French medical aid group Doctors Without Borders has launched the first Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination drive for schoolgirls in Malawi. They aim to reduce cervical cancer in Malawi, which has the world's second-highest death rate from the disease. Lameck Masina reports from Machinga district, Malawi.
((NARRATOR))
Malawi rolled out its national Human Papillomavirus vaccination campaign in 2019, targeting 1.5 million girls aged 9 to 14 to prevent cervical cancer.
But the COVID pandemic quickly disrupted the HPV vaccine drive with shifting medical priorities and social distancing.
Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders, known by its French abbreviation MSF, this year launched a campaign to boost the low vaccine uptake by targeting girls at school.
((Radio Intro: Robert Wellemu is medical coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Malawi.))
((Robert Wellemu, MSF-Malawi (English, 29 secs))
“It’s easier to find this age group in schools than in community. And at school we have the ministry of education which works hand in hand with the ministry of health and it's easier to explain or advocate to mobilize these children to get to understand what is HPV and how they can prevent it mostly in line with a vaccine.”
((NARRATOR))
MSF says since January they vaccinated about 65,000 girls in 300 schools.
MSF says Malawi has the world’s second highest death rate from the disease, seven times the global average, with thousands dying every year.
Before getting vaccinated, girls are also taught about the disease.
((Radio Intro: Peggy Mkwezalamba is a health surveillance assistant in Malawi’s Machinga district))
((Peggy Mkwezalamba, Machinga Health Worker, (Chichewa, 21 secs))
“Health education has helped us to prepare the girls for the vaccine and to make them decide on what do, own their own. As such, a lot of girls between 9 and 14 years of age volunteered to get the jabs. Some were even asking us to vaccine them before they get consent from their parents.”
((NARRATOR))
Malawi in 2020 destroyed 20,000 expired doses of COVID-19 vaccines because of low uptake over myths and misunderstandings.
The HPV vaccine faced the same resistance as some parents refused consent…
((Radio Intro: ..says Mkwezalamba.))
((Peggy Mkwezalamba, Machinga Health Worker, (Chichewa, 14 secs))
“Their fear was that they suspected that we were vaccinating their children to make them infertile. Some suspected that we want to vaccinate their children against COVID-19 and that we have just changed the appearance of COVID-19 doses.”
((NARRATOR))
Malawi health official say meetings with village chiefs and parents helped debunk those myths and the vaccination rate has soared in the MSF drive.
((Radio Intro: Alfred Phiri is Chief Preventive Health Officer for Machinga district.))
((Alfred Phiri, Chief Preventive Health Officer, (English, ?? secs))
“We wish this support can be normalized also so that MSF can support us each and every time when we need this [drive] on HPV.”
((NARRATOR))
MSF says if there are no more disruptions, they will keep up vaccinations to try to bring down Malawi’s high death rate and maybe even one day stop cervical cancer.
((Lameck Masina, for VOA News, Machinga District, Malawi.))
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