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Advertising around the CervicalCheck screening program has increased the use of HPV vaccine to 65% this fall, a conference said.
The increase in use, by 50% in 2017, is attributed to campaigns on social networks aimed at restoring trust in the vaccine and is also seen as a consequence of the controversy surrounding CervicalCheck this year.
Professor Mary Horgan, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, said it was encouraging to see that the use of the vaccine was now returning to previous levels.
She hoped that this increase would continue. "HSE's CervicalCheck program events, badociated with advocacy, have raised awareness of cervical cancer. This now has an impact on the decisions made by parents and young people to get vaccinated. "
The vaccine protects against several strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) and prevents seven cancers of the cervix.
The school-based vaccination program for girls aged 12 to 13 started in Ireland in 2010. Initially, the proportion of students who completed the vaccination program exceeded 80%, reaching a peak of 87% in 2014-2015.
However, in the years that followed, pressure groups campaigned, claiming that, without scientific evidence, hundreds of girls had sustained long-term damage after receiving the vaccine.
The lawyers
Professor Horgan, speaking at an ICRP conference on Wednesday, called on the government, health professionals and health advocates to unite to support the government. eradication of cervical cancer.
"In Australia, they expect to virtually eradicate cervical cancer over the next two decades through a gender-neutral HPV vaccination, screening and testing." HPV.
"Ireland has the same opportunity and I hope that we can all join together to achieve this result in my lifetime and certainly that of our children," she said.
Prof. Marion Saville, cytopathologist and HPV and screening specialist in Australia, said the Irish CervicalCheck survey showed that it was working well and achieving its goals "as a whole".
"The number of women diagnosed with cervical cancer has decreased by 7% each year, and among women participating in screening, high rates of cancer have been detected at an early stage, allowing many women to succeed.
Plans to extend the vaccine to adolescents are currently the subject of a technical badessment by the Health Quality and Quality Information Authority. CervicalCheck also plans to switch to an HPV form of cervical cancer with lower false negative rates.
Prof Saville said the introduction of HPV testing would better control this disease. "In parallel with the high use of HPV vaccination [it] Ireland has the best chance of eliminating cervical cancer as a public health problem. "
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