Age limit for HPV vaccination to be increased – Public Health Ministry

…sweeping demands could lead to vaccines for boys

Extensive demands for the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination that is currently being administered to girls between the ages of nine and 13 in the school system has led to interventions that will see an increase in the age range.
This was related to Guyana Times during an exclusive interview with Maternal and Child Health officer, Dr Oneka Scott, from the Public Health Ministry, who informed that the decision was taken after healthcare assistants and other stakeholders would have observed the immense necessity that was shown towards the vaccination programme. As such, the need to widen the scope was evident and strategies are underway for this to materialise.
“Concerning the demands, the good news which hasn’t been released as yet is that in conversations that we’ve had with healthcare workers and our international partners, it was decided that we would extend the age for the girls receiving the HPV vaccine. We have to decide on a launch date. This was agreed upon at the highest level and now we’re laying the groundwork to make that possible,” Scott stated.
She emphasised on the demands that were placed by parents to have boys included in the action plan, since many schools abroad are currently onboard with this initiative. This will ensure that both genders are protected at an early juncture.
“There is a great demand. There are a lot of people writing the Ministry and asking to give it to their boys because more and more parents are travelling [and] they are sensitised to the way the vaccine is being given in foreign territories, so we have a great demand for two things. One is to extend the age group of the girls and the second demand is to give it to boys.”
As a healthcare professional, she noted boys are transmitting the virus as well which can lead to cancers of various forms. To prevent this and reduce the chances of alarming statistics, they are hoping to introduce the programme for males.
“We are hopeful that in the future, we will have a positive to the possibility to offering it to the boys. Some scientific-based journals argue that boys are mostly transmitting the HPV. It could be a sign for us but surely, there are great benefits for us in protecting and vaccinating boys because boys can get genital cancer too from HPV. They can get penile cancer, anal cancer and throat cancer,” she said.
So far, the Ministry had managed to cover 50 per cent of the region as it relates to the first dosage and the plan is to make it an “opt out” option. This means that the vaccination will be administered to students with the exception of requests from individuals who do not prefer to be provided with it.
“For most of the first dosage at the third quarter of the year, we’re over 50 per cent in most of the regions. There are regions that have challenges and the challenges basically lie with the request of healthcare workers. Now we want to move with an ‘opt out’ option instead of ‘opt in’ that most countries are doing,” Scott posited.
She further explained, “We give parents a chance to ‘opt in’ but it should’ve been to give them a chance to ‘opt out’. So the vaccine is going to be given at the school level but if you don’t want it, let [us] know so that your child won’t be able to receive it.”
A World Health Organisation (WHO) recently claimed that there were increases in the number of throat cancer in the United States of America (USA) in the heights of HPV contractions.
Throughout the months, the HPV campaign was rolled out with interactions with students and parents within several regions of Guyana. This is done so as to provide them the necessary information and clear any misconceptions and concerns which may have arisen.
Many teachers and parents have also welcomed the move to reduce the spread and contraction of the virus in youths.