CerviCal CanCer Jabs must for sChoolgirls

Vaccine will be given free in Dubai and N. Emirates

dubai — Cervical cancer vaccination will be compulsory for all schoolgirls in Dubai and the Northern Emirates from October and it will be offered for free, a senior health official has said.

The vaccine will be part of the National Immunisation Programme under the Ministry of Health and Prevention (Mohap). “The vaccine is not available right now, but we will have it soon,” Dr Hussein Al Rand, assistant undersecretary of health centres and clinics at the ministry, told Khaleej

Times. “In October, we will have a big campaign to raise awareness and launch the initiative.”

Dr Al Rand said that the girls will receive the first dose of the vaccination during the second semester, and the second dose later.

The decision is part of a ministerial decree recently signed by the Minister of Health and Prevention.

The HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine is already compulsory for schoolgirls in Abu Dhabi under the emirate’s vaccination programme. In 2013, Abu Dhabi extended the free immunisation scheme to include more Emirati women between the ages of 18 and 26. Cervical cancer is

the second most common among Abu Dhabi women, even though it is preventable.

According to the HPV Information Centre of the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), estimates in 2017 indicated that every year, 93 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 28 die from the disease in the UAE. It is recommended that females aged between 25 to 65 years undergo papillomavirus screening every three to five years. Females between the ages of 13 and 26 years need to get vaccinated against HPV.

Doctors in the UAE hailed the decision, calling it a “landmark” one. “The mandatory vaccination programme for school girls introduced in Abu Dhabi more than a decade ago has been showing

significant reduction in cancer cases. The latest decision would help in the early prevention of this deadly disease in the UAE,” said Dr Ghassan Lotfi, consultant in obstetrics and gynecology, Al Zahra Hospital Dubai.

Dr Mohanad Diab, consultant and HOD medical oncology, NMC Speciality Hospital, Abu Dhabi, said: “The decision shall serve the tenets of the UAE Government to foster a healthy and a happy generation.”