THE MINISTRY of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children has urged parents to ensure that their daughters take the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV) to protect them from cervical cancer.
The Ministry’s officer for immunization program and vaccines development, Lotalis Gadau, made the plea while speaking with Tanga Regional Health Management Team (RHMT).
Ms Gadau allayed fears that the vaccines are not safe, urging parents to rely on information from medical experts instead of hearsay.
She said parents must be aware of the importance of different types of vaccines offered by the government, which has good intention of protecting its people.
“In collaboration with other health stakeholders, we are here to review and make assessment on available data, know the challenges and come up with a way forward in administering the vaccines,” she said
She added that the team will meet with medical teams from various districts in Tanga region to discuss about challenges and way forward to ensure the standard ratio of vaccination is attained in each region.
“Vaccination is very important to any nation; through it, the government could reduce cost of treating its people during the outbreak of diseases like measles, rubella (MR2) and cervical cancer,” she said.
However, she urged women to frequently go for cervical cancer screening, which is available almost in all health facilities across the country.
According to Tanga Regional Humanization and Vaccine Officer (RIVO), Seif Shaibu, the coverage of HPV1 &2 in the region was still below required standard due to various setbacks, among them ignorance among parents over the vaccine.
Mr Seif said parents have a big role to play to ensure young girls are vaccinated to shield them from cervical cancer.
“Some parents are reluctant to take their children for the vaccine, thinking that it will lead to infertility,” he said.
On his side, Dr Peter Lyaluu, Maternal and Child Health Officer from Management and Development for Health (MDH) organization that focuses primarily on public health service said that some girls are at high risk of getting cervical cancer because most of them take one dose of vaccine (HPV1) and ignore the remaining (HPV2) dose.
“We have to increase awareness to rescue them,” he added.
In addition, Dr Layruu expressed that due to low coverage vaccination in Tanga region, MDH decided to support the government interventions and boost awareness among the community members about the vaccine.