‘You’d give your right arm to protect your daughter from cancer’
GP AND broadcaster Ciara Kelly has pleaded with parents to get their daughters vaccinated against the HPV virus and to ignore scaremongering from campaign groups.
Figures revealed yesterday showed that the number of teenage girls availing of the free vaccination is on the rise, with almost two-thirds now getting the jab.
However, uptake remains significantly lower than the numbers seen when the service was initially made available to schoolgirls.
Speaking at the launch of the HSE’s new HPV vaccination campaign, Dr Kelly said that there were few youth health initiatives as important as the drive to get girls vaccinated. ‘For those of you who haven’t vaccinated your daughters, or are in any way afraid or resistant or reluctant to vaccinate you daughters, I say this to you – you are afraid of the wrong things,’ she said.
‘The vaccine has been shown to be safe, the vaccine has been shown to be effective in the prevention of cancer – this is a gift you could give your daughter.’
She added: ‘If you could protect your daughter from cancer, you would give your right arm to do it, surely.’ Sixty-two per cent of girls in first year of secondary school have received the vaccination, an increase from September in 2016 when there was an uptake of 51%. However, uptake saw greater levels in its early stages, reaching as high as 87% in 2014.
Dr Kelly also called on the vaccine to be made available to teenage boys, as the HPV virus is linked to around 4.5% of all cancers.
‘As well as us being able to treat and prevent cervical cancer, being able to vaccinate against HPV is likely, down the line, to have ramifications for cancer in general, which is a truly wonderful thing.’
However, according to the National Association of General Practitioners, uptake levels among boys are very low, with the two injections required to administer the vaccine costing a total of a hefty €300.
The vaccine has come under attack in recent years, with some parents claiming that it has left their daughters with life-changing health problems such as depression and chronic exhaustion. However, Dr Kelly stressed that the idea that the vaccine is dangerous is ‘fake news’.
‘The vaccine has been shown to be safe. Hundreds of millions of doses worldwide have been given,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail.
The HSE’s new public campaign is fronted by Laura Brennan from Co. Clare, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2016, and never received the HPV vaccine as it was not available to her.
After going through treatment, the 25-year-old was given the allclear, before discovering weeks later that her cancer was terminal.
‘My dad always said that no parent should outlive their child, and I’m not here to scaremonger but the reality is there is a vaccine here to protect girls who are getting cervical cancer, and protect parents like mine from outliving their children,’ she said.
‘HPV jab is shown to be safe’