Cavan ranks high in HPV vaccine up-take

Thomas Lyons

The Cavan/Monaghan HSE area ranks among the highest uptake of the HPV vaccine, which is administered in an effort to protects against cervical cancer, during the last academic year under the School Immunisation System (SIS).

The local area was only behind urban centres Dublin and Limerick in subscriptions to the immunisation programme. Targeting girls in the first year of second level education or age equivalent, the aim of the programme is to vaccinate against the virus in an bid to protect from future risk of developing cervical cancer. The figures for Cavan Monaghan are compiled together. They show there was a 64% upstage of Stage 1 and a 57.5% uptake of stage 2. The programme commenced following a recommendation from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee, that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine should be given to 12 year old girls. The Health Service Executive school HPV vaccination programme began in May 2010.
The figures presented for the academic year 2016/2017 are based on data recorded on SIS on January 9, 2018.
A HSE spokeswoman said provisional figures for this year show some recovery in take-up during the latest round of vaccination.
The HSE said there was an average increase of 11%, bringing the national take-up to 62%. However, this means thousands of the 40,000 eligible schoolgirls are still not participating in the immunisation programme.
In the conclusion of the report the HSE describe the decline in uptake of HPV vaccine in Ireland in the academic year in the 2016/2017 school term as “a concern”.
Every year in Ireland about 300 women get cervical cancer and 90 women die from it.