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ShareProtect your daughter: take advantage of shot
Published: September 30, 2008 1:00 PMImmunizing your child is one of the most important ways to protect their health.
Beginning this fall the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine will be provided free to girls in grades 6 to 9 in B.C.
HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. Often, it has no signs or symptoms.
There are more than 100 different kinds of HPV with at least 40 that can cause genital warts and cancers such as cervical cancer. Even though your daughter may not be sexually active right now, someday she may be.
Since vaccination is meant to prevent HPV not treat or cure it, it will work best before she becomes sexually active. Vaccination is an important part of keeping your daughter healthy as are teaching about abstinence, safer sex, and PAP testing.
For those women who have never been infected with HPV, the vaccine has many benefits: It protects against seven out of 10 cases of cancer of the cervix; protects against nine out of 10 cases of genital warts; is safe, effective and has few side effects.
The HPV vaccine series consists of three shots in the arm, which will be given over a six-month period during the school year. It is very important for your daughter to receive all three vaccines for the best possible protection. Watch for a consent to come home from school.
Read the consent and if you have any questions you can contact a public health nurse or family doctor. For more information, you can also visit www.immunizebc.ca or www.bchealthguide.org/healthfiles. Once you have signed the consent make sure that it is promptly returned to the school.
If your daughter is in grades 7 or 8, she will be offered the vaccine in the next two years when she enters Grade 9. For girls in Grade 10 and up or women up to 26 years of age wishing to receive the vaccine, the vaccine can be purchased through their physician or travel medicine clinic.
At this time there is no recommendation for boys and men to receive the HPV vaccine. Studies are looking at how the vaccine works in males and recommendations may change in the future.
Having your daughter immunized against HPV is one of those decisions that can help keep her safe and healthy for the future.
Jill Rhynard, BScN, MPH, is Coordinator of Health Promotion for Population Health, Interior Health.
