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हिन्दी — Read in HindiVaccines and immunisation
New vaccines, the campaigns that deliver them, and the alliances that fund vaccines for the world. Prelims has asked about COVID-19 vaccine platforms and why pneumococcal conjugate vaccines matter for India.
Foundation note: The immunisation programme and how vaccines are made
Showing 1 of 4 articles, those that changed from 1 to 30 June 2026.Show all
National HPV Vaccination Campaign
Copy link to National HPV Vaccination CampaignPrelims and Mains
Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers with a single known cause, and human papillomavirus (HPV) is it.
- HPV types 16 and 18 cause most cervical cancers.
- The campaign was launched in February 2026 and offers girls of 14 a single free and voluntary dose at government health facilities.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) accepted in 2022 that one dose protects girls of this age about as well as two.
What changed
20 Jun 2026BriefA Lancet study found no cervical cancer deaths among women aged 20 to 24 in England after HPV vaccination at 12 to 13. A review at one Indian hospital finds HPV, mainly type 16, increasingly behind oropharyngeal cancers in young patients without tobacco use. Mains: prevention must widen from tobacco control to HPV awareness, vaccination of boys and early screening. The Hindu, 20 Jun 2026: Tobacco apart, HPV is now emerging as a major risk factor for head and neck cancers in young Indians (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 19 Jun 2026: Cervical cancer deaths for vaccinated young women fall to zero in England: study (opens in a new tab)
- mRNA vaccine
- A vaccine that delivers genetic instructions for a pathogen's protein, so the body's cells make it and train the immune system without live virus.
- Viral vector vaccine
- A vaccine that uses a harmless modified virus to carry a gene for the pathogen's protein into cells, which then make it.
- Serotype
- A variant within a microbial species, told apart by its surface antigens; immunity to one serotype need not protect against another.
- Reverse vaccinology
- Designing a vaccine by searching a pathogen's genome for proteins suitable to build it on.
- adjuvant
- A substance added to a vaccine to strengthen and lengthen the immune response to its main ingredient.
- Antibody dependent enhancement
- Low levels of cross reactive antibodies worsening a new dengue infection instead of blocking it.
- Tetravalent vaccine
- A vaccine against all four serotypes.