HPV35 creates a shortfall in Nigeria’s protection against cervical cancer because the strain is omitted from the vaccines presently deployed there. The matter re-emerged during an October World Health Organization briefing when a journalist inquired about the relevance of this virus in sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Kate O’Brien, WHO’s director of immunisation, emphasized that countries need to factor in locally circulating HPV types when selecting a vaccine product and determining the number of doses.
Local Viral Types and Vaccine Choice
“It’s not only about the schedule; it’s also about product decisions,” O’Brien stated. The discussion highlights a conflict between existing immunisation strategies and the specific viral environment in Nigeria.
WHO’s vaccine advisers are bolstering advocacy for a one-dose regimen and are exploring possibilities to broaden that approach to include both younger adolescents and older women. Expanding availability tackles one deficiency, yet variations among vaccine formulations introduce a separate concern.
A 2025 Nigerian investigation analyzed high-risk HPV presence in 189 cervical-cancer patients, drawing on specimens collected from a cohort tracked from 2018 through 2022. The team identified high-risk HPV DNA in 122 participants. Within this positive group, HPV16 and HPV18 together accounted for 67.2% of detections, while HPV35 appeared in 6.6% of cases, alongside other oncogenic types such as HPV45 and HPV52.
The investigators calculated that the quartet of HPV types included in Nigeria’s current vaccine would theoretically protect against 67.2% of the high-risk infections observed, whereas a nine-type formulation could address roughly 86.1% of them. These figures represent projected type coverage within this specific cancer sample and should not be interpreted as national vaccine efficacy or as the share of all cervical cancers in Nigeria that could be averted through immunisation.
Comparing Vaccine Options
Gardasil 9 is formulated to protect against nine HPV strains, 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58, excluding HPV35. Switching to this vaccine would extend direct coverage to additional oncogenic types, yet it would still lack a component that specifically addresses HPV35.
Previous work conducted in Ibadan contrasted HPV distribution among 932 women from the broader community with that of 75 patients diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer. The comparison highlights that the prevalence of a genotype in the general population does not automatically translate into a proportional role in malignancy, as mere detection of infection does not guarantee disease development.
