Teachers’ challenge to cancer-fighting jab for teenage girls
A LEADING teachers’ union has called for a review of the administration of the life-saving HPV vaccine in schools.
In a surprise ballot, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland voted for the review at its annual conference in Cork this week.
The anti-cancer Gardasil vaccine has been administered to girls in their first year of secondary school since 2010, to prevent Human Papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer.
It is strongly advocated by doctors but speculation that the vaccine could be risky have caused the take-up rate to fall in recent years.
The TUI motion was put by teacher Seán Wynne, who is also a member of the Gardasil Awareness Group. The union wants it to be administered in clinics rather than schools.
Following his successful motion, the TUI will seek a review of the system by the Department of Education.
However, the Irish Medical Organisation, which repre sents doctors, has called on the department and the HSE to support the HPV vaccine programme, with the aim to bring uptake up to 85% among 12- and 13-year-old girls.
Doctors at their AGM said uptake had fallen as the vaccine had been plagued by a social media campaign against it.
And Dr Karina Butler, chairwoman of the National Immunisation Advisory Committee and an advocate for the vaccine, told the Irish Daily Mail that she was aware of the concerns but that the side-effects were not serious or common.
She said: ‘The HPV vaccine is an incredibly major advance in our fight to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer, of lethal infection for women and to reduce the incidence of HPV-related viral infections. It has proven incredibly effective.
‘The benefits of it have been shown robustly since its introduction.
‘The side-effects have been very closely looked at by the World Health Organisation and it has been found that it is a very safe vaccine with only the usual kind of expected side-effects such as soreness at the injection site,’ she said.
‘Yes, there is some discomfort at the time of administration of the vaccine and there was some issues with children fainting getting it but it is very safe and it is safe to administer where it is being done.’
Dr Butler said schools were the ideal place to make sure children received their vaccination.
She said: ‘The important thing is the children and young people can access the vaccine.
It is a concern that the amount of vaccines administered might decrease if it is stopped being administered in schools but of course, we can always look at what the alternative strategies are.’
Mr Wynne claims his daughter suffered what he has called serious effects shortly after receiving the vaccine, and he believes health centres, not schools, are the best place for girls to get the injection.
Speaking to Ocean FM about the result, he said: ‘At health centres it’s provided, where the professional staff are in place, as opposed to going round in schools.’
He said that in health centres it would be monitored and it would be followed up if there were any reactions to it.
The rate of administration has fallen from what is believed to be as high as 87% since 2014, due to stories of bad side-effect experiences.
However, Dr Butler feels that if the programme is stopped in schools, the number of children given the injection will decrease even further in years to come.
‘Closely looked at by the WHO’