JOHANNESBURG – The City of Johannesburg Health Department together with Gauteng Department of Health embarked on a massive campaign to provide the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to school-going girls.
The campaign is conducted under the theme ‘Protecting South African Girls against Cancer of the Cervix’. It is administered in a schedule of two doses at a six months interval, targeting all young girls in grade four who are nine to 12 years old in all public and special schools.
The first dose (HPV1) will be given from March 10 until April 11 and the HPV2 (second dose) will be administered from September 29 to October 24.
The purpose of this intervention is to implement one of the four basic components of cervical cancer control, namely primary prevention.
The City of Johannesburg will be aiming to reach about 29 700 grade four learners in 484 primary schools in Johannesburg.
Almost 80 per cent of cervical cancers are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV). The virus can infect the genital area and cause from something small like a genital wart to cervical and other cancers. The vaccination prevents the infection of the cervix by the Human Papillomavirus.
“The Department of Health teams will visit public and special education schools during the campaign to administer free HPV vaccination to girls in grade four in 2014 and who are nine to twelve years old,” says Clr Nonceba Molwele, the MMC for Health and Social Development in the City of Johannesburg.
“Parents need to ensure that they have signed and returned the consent forms, which they will receive from the school that their children attend,” emphasises MMC Molwele.
