Abstract:

Background: Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection is identified as one of the significant causes of infection-related cancer worldwide. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer effecting women worldwide with over 200 types of HPV, which are categorized into high risk, and low risk groups according to their oncogenic potential. Cervical cancer causes about 311,000 deaths annually. Low resources countries, including those in sub-Saharan Africa, have the highest-burden of cervical cancers.

Methodology: The study design will be cross-sectional in nature using and that was carried out among secondary school girls aging between (9-16) in Nyamagana district, Mwanza. Data was collected from female students by interviewing them, using structured questionnaires which were both in English and Swahili language. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies were used calculated to summarize the baseline social demographic information

Results: A total of 359 participants met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study. Nearly three-quarters of the participants (78%) heard about carcinoma of the cervix while only a few of them have never heard of it (17.5%). The overall knowledge about the HPV vaccine was very low, 35% of the students had good knowledge, while 65% of them had poor knowledge, and most source of information was from family and friends (47.4%). (60.4%) were willing to be vaccinated while just a few (15.9%) were not willing. The safety of the vaccine encourages half of the participants (52.4%) to be vaccinated

Conclusion: The overall knowledge and acceptance of the HPV vaccine among girls was low, strengthening health education on cervical cancer, and HPV vaccination and ensuring the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine will be key to increasing knowledge of the disease and vaccine and increasing acceptance of the vaccine