Over the weekend, Dr. Josephine Villafuerte, head of the City Health Office, called on parents of students in public schools to take advantage of the free Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccines.
Villafuerte’s office said that the agency prioritize public schools in its HPV vaccination campaign, although private schools that will make a request will also be attended to.
“It is better if the parents will give consent that their children will be injected with the HPV vaccine, especially that we are doing this for free. This vaccine is expensive in private hospitals,” she said as she pointed out that girls who are nine or older need to get vaccinated, but that the agency will only administer the vaccination if there is a parent’s consent.
The consent is necessary because the vaccine tries to prevent cervical cancer in women, she said.
However, one must remember parents have entertained doubts on vaccination following the controversy surrounding the use of a certain medicine for vaccination to prevent dengue.
Parents must understand that their children need to be provided with a strong shield from illnesses.
The agency must embark a more elaborate campaign to let not only the parents or their children, but also the public, to understand the implication of vaccination especially because of the doubt caused by the previous controversy.
What can be done is expanding the campaign especially in areas where the regular modes of information are wanting. These are the areas that need to be informed not only because they are far from the city proper, but because they are both vulnerable and their access to healthcare is next to nothing.
