Herefordshire Primary Care Trust's school nurses have immunised more than 700 12 and 13 year old girls across the county this term as part of a huge nationwide HPV immunisation campaign to protect girls against the future risk of cervical cancer.
School nurses have been working with schools to obtain parental consents and provide facilities for the vaccine to be administered on school sites. The Cervarix is the vaccine being used in the HPV vaccination programme as directed by the Department of Health. Three doses of the vaccine are needed over a six month period and to date up to 80 percent of 12 and 13 year olds involved in the programme have received their first injection with the second and third planned between now and Easter.
The next phase is to offer the vaccine to 17 and 18 year old girls via sixth forms in schools, Herefordshire College of Technology and Hereford Sixth Form College.
In order to inoculate 17 and 18 year olds girls who are not in education or for 12 and 13 year olds who may have missed the programme at their school, the school nursing service is holding a number of clinics around the county.
Girls with birthdays between September 1st 1995 and 31st August 1996 or September 1st 1990 and 31st August 1991 are eligible for the vaccination which is free of charge.
No booking is required; they simply turn up at one of the venues although 12 and 13 year olds will need to have a parent or guardian with them who is prepared to consent to them receiving the vaccination.
Jane Terry, professional head of school nursing, said: "To ensure that all eligible girls are offered the vaccine the Primary Care Trust has decided to take the programme out into the wider community offering a range of alternative dates and venues."
"Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women
worldwide and the HPV vaccine can reduce the risk of young women
developing this in later life by as much as 70 percent. We want to
make sure that all eligible girls are offered this vaccine".
"At the moment we are just targeting the two age groups mentioned,
but a two year catch up campaign to offer vaccine to girls aged 12
to 18 will be launched in September 2009."