The age range to receive the human papillomavirus vaccine was extended up to 15 years of age, as reported by the coordinator of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) Itzel de Hewitt, reiterating the call to parents and guardians to allow their children to be vaccinated in schools in order to prevent the resurgence of diseases that were considered eradicated.
Previously this vaccine was applied to girls up to 10 years old, now it is applied to girls and boys and even adolescents up to 15 years old, as long as they have the endorsement of the parents.
“With this vaccine (the human papilloma) we are taking care of her present and ensuring her future life free of cervical cancer, as well as many cancers of the vagina, vulva, anus, penis and oropharynx (cancer of the throat and mouth)” .
“Diseases that we had already eradicated, such as measles and congenital rubella, can return and cause cases; You could also register hepatitis outbreaks in schools, which we didn’t have before,” said Hewitt.
He stressed that “these are vaccines that we have given for years, they are safe, they are risk-free, they are vaccines of proven effectiveness with adverse events, minimum and null within the population that we are applying it”.
Hewitt called on parents to send the vaccination card with their children, since we know that mothers are willing that their children have been vaccinated.
He explained that there is concern in the health sector, since vaccination in schools had been one of the greatest achievements over the years; he added that the logistics were always coordinated together with the Ministry of Education (Meduca).
“When a nurse entered a school before the pandemic, parents knew in advance what days they were going to vaccinate their children, how many children were going to be vaccinated; teacher collaboration was vital in the process,” she said.
He stressed that if the vaccines, which had been eradicated, are not applied and the gap is allowed to increase every day, with unimmunized children, problems can begin to arise and these diseases, which were considered eradicated, begin to sprout.
