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On October 31, the Ministry of Health will hold its first public meeting to give citizens the opportunity to ask questions about the human papillomavirus (HPV) and the vaccine used to treat young girls and boys before they get sick. exposure to the disease.
The ministry, in a statement released yesterday, said that it created an opportunity to ask their questions, to openly express their fears or even their suspicions, through a series of public meetings to the scale of the island.
"These public meetings will be very close and interactive [while there will be] Q & A sessions with medical experts in the fields of gynecology and pediatrics, "the statement said. "These town hall meetings are places where people, especially parents and guardians, will be encouraged to talk freely about the disease and the proposed vaccine used in the island's high schools," he said. he added.
The first meeting on October 31 will be held at Webster Memorial Church, located at 53 Half Way Tree Road in St Andrew, where the ministry has promised to actively listen to the concerns of parents, teachers and anyone wishing to get more information. d & # 39; information. his desire to vaccinate the girls of the nation.
Dr. Melody Ennis, Acting Director of the Ministry's Family Health Unit; Dr. Clive Lai, consulting obstetrician and gynecologist, and Dr. Abigail Harrison, a pediatrician and specialist in adolescent medicine, are scheduled to speak at the plenary session.
The ministry said that a survivor of cervical cancer as well as a girl who received the vaccine will also speak at the meeting.
Since September, the ministry has been conducting an awareness campaign about the dangers of HPV and its link to cervical cancer. HPV is a group of about 200 viruses that infect skin tissue.
According to a report by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States, HPV is so common that almost every sexually active person will contract HPV at some point in their life if they do not get vaccinated. It's for this reason, said the Ministry of Health, that it targets young girls aged 9 to 14, who are probably not yet exposed to the virus.
The HPV vaccine is available for women up to age 26 as a way to fight against cervical cancer. However, the vaccine is most effective if it is administered before exposure to the virus. This is why many countries around the world have decided to include HPV vaccination programs as part of its routine pre-adolescent immunization program.
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