Khara Per­sad

Health Min­is­ter Dr Fuad Khan is con­sid­er­ing the Hu­man Pa­pil­lo­ma Virus (HPV) vac­ci­na­tions for boys and at-risk women.He made the an­nounce­ment at yes­ter­day's launch of the 2013 Vac­ci­na­tion Week in the Amer­i­c­as and Vac­ci­na­tion Day on the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, Port-of-Spain.Scores of peo­ple lined up to re­ceive vac­cines such as yel­low fever, tetanus and rubel­la, among oth­ers yes­ter­day. The HPV vac­cine was not ad­min­is­tered yes­ter­day.

In his brief ad­dress, Khan said: "We have been on a pro­gramme of vac­ci­nat­ing pre-ado­les­cent school­girls and we are go­ing to do the first for­m­ers etc, but re­cent stud­ies have been show­ing that it is al­so ben­e­fi­cial in boys and in women who are sus­cep­ti­ble to the ac­tu­al ill­ness it­self. So we will be con­sid­er­ing vac­ci­nat­ing those who de­sire the vac­cine of HPV."

Khan had ini­tial­ly said in June last year that boys would not be vac­ci­nat­ed, cit­ing cost as a fac­tor but when asked yes­ter­day what caused him to re­con­sid­er, Khan said: "It is not so much of a change. It is the cost-fac­tor and cost ben­e­fit analy­sis. We are look­ing at that be­cause we have been asked to con­sid­er it.He added: "Once you have to pay for a vac­cine it's sup­posed to be giv­en to the most sus­cep­ti­ble pop­u­la­tion, which is the cer­vi­cal can­cer group of women."

When asked fur­ther if the cost-ben­e­fit analy­sis shows that it is fea­si­ble to vac­ci­nate boys and at-risk women, the min­is­ter said: "Yes, it is look­ing good."Khan al­so called on the pop­u­la­tion to be­come vac­ci­nat­ed since, "(it) is re­quired for the pre­ven­tion of ill­ness­es."He added: "We have now em­barked up­on the HPV vac­cine and the oth­er vac­ci­na­tions."

The HPV vac­cine, he said, caused much con­tro­ver­sy which has since "died down," but it has be­come a "wel­come ad­di­tion" to the vac­ci­na­tion pool, es­pe­cial­ly for adult women and boys.Vac­ci­na­tion Week in the Amer­i­c­as 2013 was held re­gion­al­ly from April 20 and ends to­day. It was recog­nised in T&T yes­ter­day.