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National school directors in Colombo do not support the program of the administration of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to schoolgirls, said the director of the Office of Health Promotion, Paba Palihawadana.
The HPV vaccine, which protects against cervical cancer, was introduced in the National Immunization Program in 2017.
"Cervical cancer is the second most important cancer among women in Sri Lanka. The first is bad cancer, "said Dr. Palihawadana.
Dr. Palihawadana was speaking at a press conference organized yesterday by the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) on the occasion of "World Cancer Day 2019".
She said the directors of national schools in Colombo were reluctant to support the HPV vaccination program in their respective schools. She asked the parents to come forward to change the situation.
"The vaccine is given to girls over 11 years old. I encourage parents to vaccinate girls over the age of 6 against HPV, "she said.
Dr.Sudath Samaraweera, Deputy Director-General of Health Services, also regretted that school girls were denied the opportunity to be vaccinated against HPV because of the dominance of some school principals in Colombo .
Dr.Samaraweera said that bad cancer, oral cancer and cervical cancer are the three main types of cancer in Sri Lanka, according to statistics. He said that one third of cancers could be prevented by vaccines and that another third could be cured if it was detected early. He said that smoking, alcohol consumption, poor eating habits and physical inactivity are major causes of cancer.
Dr. Samaraweera also commended the community movements of some areas to ban the sale of tobacco in their villages and declare it tobacco-free.
Dr. Suraj Perera, community consultant physician, said that 29,843 new cancer patients had been registered in 2018, adding that figures from the last 11 years show that there is some increase in the number of cancer patients. incidence of cancers in Sri Lanka. He added that 28,931 new cancer patients were registered in 2017, 29,457 in 2016 and 28,474 in 2015. However, he said that multiple registrations had not been removed and that the actual figures could therefore slightly differ from the statistics above.
He said the aging population in Sri Lanka was also a reason for the increase in the incidence of cancer. "The rest of the world is also experiencing a similar situation, but some of them have managed to reduce the number of cancer deaths. In our case, the number of cancer deaths had also increased, "he said.
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