HPV vaccination programme to be implemented by year’s end

The Ministry of Health has promised that a strong education campaign will be launched ahead of the planned implementation of a controversial immunisation programme to prevent the Human Papilomarivus (HPV) from affecting students in secondary schools.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Rhonda Sealey Thomas announced, yesterday, that the programme will be rolled out before the close of 2017.
“By the end of the year, Antigua would have joined the other countries that would have introduced the cervical cancer vaccine; we already have the vaccines on island and we will be introducing it shortly,” Dr Sealey Thomas said during a ceremony to mark the opening of Vaccination Week in the Americas, which runs from April 22-29.
Acting Superintendent of Public Health Nurses, Phillipa Roberts said most of the activities for the week will be geared towards educating the public about the benefits of the vaccine.
“There is a separate education programme that is under way for the HPV vaccine; however, because we are celebrating Vaccination Week in the Americas we will also be using that platform to target the population, persons with children between the ages of nine and 13 because that is the age we will be targeting,” she said.
Roberts added that education about the virus will be promoted throughout the entire week.
 
(More in today’s Daily Observer)