HPV programme to continue

HUMAN papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection which is usually harmless and goes away by itself, but some types can lead to cancer or genital warts.

Former health minister Dr Fuad Khan started a HPV programme in schools in 2013 targeting 20,000 girls between ages 13 and 15 to be vaccinated. However, the programme flopped due to objections from the Catholic Education Board of Management (CEBM).

The CEBM had ad­vised par­ents to stop giv­ing con­sent for their children to be giv­en the vac­cine, citing a lack of in­for­ma­tion about the vaccine and say­ing the Health Min­istry did not no­ti­fy the CEBM about the pro­gramme.

According to head of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) Gwendolyn Loobie-Snag­gs, the EPI has re-en­gi­neered the pro­gramme to meet the re­quire­ments of the CEBM and oth­er in­ter­est groups.

Of the 20,000 girls tar­get­ed in the first phase of the pro­gramme, on­ly about 500 have re­ceived the vaccine so far.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram admitted that the programme came to a halt because of the cultural differences and acceptance of the programme.

“The programme has continued through the health centres and people have been vaccinated. Hopefully we will have a plan in place where we can raise what has happened in the schools because it has benefitted some countries greatly by using the vaccination in schools. The cases of cervical cancer have decreased significantly in some countries in the world because of the vaccination. Proper stakeholder consultation has to occur before we actually go back.”

Parasram said boys were not originally targeted for the vaccine, adding that it was a targetted vaccination programme.

“We were looking at between 13-15 year olds because that is the area that we can prevent HPV and the development of cervical disease. It is important to boys, but the incidence in that part of the population is not that great. It has not been our first thrust, to be honest. The females have a much higher prevalence of cancer related to HPV than males. It was really a second line sort of thing that we wanted to get on stream after we established treatment of HPV in females.”

There are over 100 strains of HPV and it is present in 80 per cent of men and women. Not all strains cause cancer as our bodies naturally clear the virus from our systems. However, strains 16 and 18 caused 70 per cent of cancer, and there were other high-risk types. In some people, the virus does not clear and it lingers on, causing changes in the cells that are picked up by a pap smear.