Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Campaign

The City of Johannesburg Health Department and Gauteng Department of Health will be embarking in a massive campaign to provide the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to schoolgirls.

The campaign will be conducted under the theme “Protecting South African Girls against Cancer of the Cervix”.

It will be 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 administered from March 10 – April 11 and the HPV2 (second dose) will be administered from September 29 – October 24.

The purpose of this intervention is to implement the one of the four basic component of cervical cancer control, namely primary prevention.

The City of Johannesburg will be targeting to reach about 29,700 pupils in 484 primary schools in Johannesburg.

Almost 80% 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 virus

“The Department of Health teams will visit public and special education schools during the campaign to administer free HPV vaccination to girls,” says Clr Nonceba Molwele, the Member of the Mayoral Committee (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,” said Molwele.