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Vaccines and immunisation
Vaccines and the programmes that deliver them: how vaccines are made and work, the national immunisation programme, new vaccines, 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.
Showing 2 of 4 subjects, those that changed from 16 to 31 July 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. A dose given before exposure therefore prevents the cancer rather than treating it, which is the whole case for vaccinating girls at 14.
- HPV types 16 and 18 cause most cervical cancers.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) accepted in 2022 that one dose protects girls of this age about as well as two, which makes a one visit campaign workable.
- The campaign was launched in February 2026 and offers a single free and voluntary dose at government health facilities.
- More than 80 lakh doses had been given by 11 September 2026, seven months after it was launched.
- About 1.2 crore girls turn 14 each year, which is the cohort the campaign has to reach.
- Coverage is tracked district by district on U-WIN.
What changed
11 Sep 2026
21 Jul 2026Updatealso in news
- A little over 52 lakh girls had been vaccinated free by 15 July 2026, out of a cohort of about 1.2 crore girls who turn 14 each year. A district in Madhya Pradesh reached girls outside school by matching government databases into village lists, which treats the gap as missing data and not as hesitancy.
PIB, 21 Jul 2026: A multi-faceted approach that includes HPV vaccination, screening, early diagnosis at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and treatment through Day Care Cancer Centres is implemented by the Union Government against Cervical Cancer (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 3 Jul 2026: A shot at life, Mandsaur's model for HPV vaccination (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 17 Jul 2026: India's national HPV vaccination programme is running far behind its target in its first year (opens in a new tab)
Qdenga
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Qdenga (TAK-003), made by Takeda of Japan, is a live attenuated tetravalent vaccine built on a dengue type 2 backbone using recombinant DNA technology. It is given as two doses under the skin three months apart, to people aged 4 to 60, and needs no test for earlier infection. Dengue has four serotypes, and antibodies from a first infection can help a different serotype enter cells in a second, which is called antibody dependent enhancement and is why dengue vaccines are hard to design.
What changed
21 Jul 2026New subject
- The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation granted marketing authorisation, making this the first dengue vaccine approved in India.
- In trials it was 80.2 per cent effective against confirmed dengue at 12 months and 90.4 per cent against hospitalisation at 18 months.
- In people who have never had dengue, protection is shown only against DENV-1 and DENV-2, which raises a concern about later DENV-3 disease in such children.
- It is approved in 43 countries and is not part of the Universal Immunisation Programme.
PIB, 21 Jul 2026: Dengue Vaccine Approved in 42 Countries with WHO Prequalification and Strong Global Safety Record (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 27 Jul 2026: India's first dengue vaccine arrives with a crucial safety caveat (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 20 Jul 2026: India approves its first dengue vaccine, Qdenga, for ages four to sixty (opens in a new tab)