Pakistani parents rebuff HPV vaccine over infertility fears

A long-standing conspiracy theory that Western-made vaccines are used to curb Muslim population has been circulating online in the country

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A health worker injects human papillomavirus vaccine to a student in Islamabad on September 24, 2025, during a vaccination drive held to protect adolescent girls from cervical cancer.

(AFP)

Misinformation plagued the first rollout of a vaccine to protect Pakistani girls against cervical cancer, with parents slamming their doors on healthcare workers and some schools shutting for days over false claims it causes infertility.

The country's first HPV vaccine campaign aimed to administer jabs to 11 million girls but by the time it ended Saturday only around half the intended doses were administered.

A longstanding conspiracy theory that Western-produced vaccines are used to curb the Muslim population has been circulating online in Pakistan.

Misinformation has also spread that the vaccine disrupts the hormones of young girls and encourages sexual activity, in a country where sex before marriage is forbidden.

"Some people have refused, closed their gates on us, and even hid information about their daughter's age," vaccinator Ambreen Zehra told AFP while going door to door in a lower-middle-income neighbourhood in Karachi.

Only around half the intended vaccines had been administered, according to a federal health department official who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.