The Min­istry of Health has tar­get­ed 20,000 girls, aged 11 and 12, to re­ceive vac­ci­na­tions in the first phase of its vol­un­tary HPV (Hu­man Pa­pil­lo­ma Virus) vac­ci­na­tion pro­gramme. The girls will be tar­get­ed through the min­istry's ex­pand­ed pro­gramme of im­mu­ni­sa­tion and dis­trict health vis­i­tors at pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools.

Health Min­is­ter Fuad Khan vis­it­ed the El So­cor­ro South Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School and Sa­cred Heart Girls' RC School yes­ter­day to launch the pro­gramme. He com­mend­ed the stu­dents and their par­ents for tak­ing re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the girls' health by get­ting the vac­cine.

He said: "If we miss the 11 to 12 age group, pri­or to our girls be­com­ing sex­u­al­ly ac­tive, then we in­crease these girls' chances of con­tract­ing cer­vi­cal can­cer lat­er in their lives. "What this vac­cine is do­ing is giv­ing our young girls a chance to pre­vent cer­vi­cal can­cer lat­er in their lives. The ben­e­fits of tak­ing the HPV vac­cine now more than out­weigh the prob­lems that they may face with cer­vi­cal can­cer lat­er on."

The cer­vi­cal can­cer rate in T&T is twice the world­wide av­er­age. A study showed that 35.4 per cent of healthy women, age 16 to 65, were HPV-DNA pos­i­tive in the cervix. The high­est preva­lence among women is be­tween 25 and 34.

Dr Khan launch­es HPV vac­cines

What is HPV?

HPV is a virus af­fect­ing both men and women. It is one of the most com­mon­ly trans­mit­ted sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted in­fec­tions (STIs) which can be con­tract­ed through con­tact with in­fect­ed skin. There are var­i­ous types of HPV which af­fect the gen­i­tal area and can de­vel­op in­to cer­vi­cal can­cer, pre­can­cer­ous le­sions or gen­i­tal warts.

A re­lease from the min­istry yes­ter­day said HPV was the cause of 90 per cent of cer­vi­cal can­cer cas­es glob­al­ly.