Guangdong plans to invest about 600 million yuan for free human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination from 2022 to 2024, according to the Department of Finance of Guangdong Province. In accordance withthe principle of informed and voluntary, starting from September 2022, girls under the age of 14 who have newly entered the first grade of junior high school and have not been vaccinated with HPV vaccine can receive HPV vaccine for free.

The policy responds to World Health Organization's global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer. This global strategy encourages countries to invest in the interventions to meet the target of 90% of girls fully vaccinated with the HPV vaccine by 15 years of age.

In order to promote the equalization of basic public health services, Guangdong government invested 162.4 billion yuan in medical financial subsidies for urban and rural residents during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020). This measure successfully supports the basic medical insurance participation rate in Guangdong to stabilize above 98%. Meanwhile, the province invested 37 billion yuan to organize 29 basic public health services for free, including children vaccination, children health management, free pre-pregnancy health checkups and maternal health management. These services provided women and children with the most basic medical health care.

The maternal mortality rate of Guangdong at the end of 2020 is 10.18 per 100,000, reaching the level of major developed countries in the world.

In terms of birth defect prevention, Guangdong has allocated subsidies of 1.24 billion yuan to carry out comprehensive prevention and control projects for birth defects during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, which reduced the direct medical cost burden by more than 2.7 billion yuan each year. From January to August this year, the province has provided free birth defect screening for 870,000 pregnant women and 1.09 million newborns.

Author: Ariel

Editor: Steven, Jerry