| With keen focus on raising awareness about the vaccine to guard against the Human Papillomarvirus (HPV) and dispelling myths linked to the vaccine, health facilities within Region Three are ready to commence observance of Vaccination Week 2016.Nurse Linda JohnsonVaccination Week, which began yesterday and will continue until Saturday April 30, is being observed under the theme ‘Go for the Gold – get vaccinated’.Region Three launched its observance on Friday at the Vreed-en-Hoop Stelling tarmac. The main targets at the forum were girls between the ages of 10 and 13. Those in attendance were exposed to an informative presentation on HPV by General Medical Officer (GMO),Cheap NBA Jerseys China, Dr. Candida Smartt.According to Region Three’s Senior Health Visitor, Nurse Linda Johnson, part of the Region’s week-long observance will be characterised by collaboration with the Parent-Teacher Associations, as well as the doctors and nurses within the Region, in the quest to clarify the myths and issues related to HPV vaccination.Concerns about the HPV vaccine were raised when it was first introduced by the Ministry of Public Health a few years ago. However,Cheap Jerseys China, the introduction of the vaccine was intended to help curb the prevalence of cervical cancer, since based on information from the Ministry of Public Health, Guyana has the third highest rate of cervical cancer in the Western hemisphere.Reflecting on the start of the local HPV vaccination drive a few years ago, Nurse Johnson admitted that there were a number of setbacks. She cited for example,Stitched Jerseys, the fact that “a lot of people were going on the internet and finding all kinds of information, some of which were not doing us any good. We had a lot of roadblocks when we started and we didn’t have much vaccines administered.”Among the misconceptions linked to the HPV vaccine is that girls who would have been administered the vaccine become sterile, or it could cause their menstrual cycle to come too early.Consequently, the available vaccines were declined, with the then Ministry of Health advising that health workers only complete doses with girls who had received an initial dose. In order for a girl to be protected against cervical cancer during adulthood, she would have had to have been administered three doses of the vaccine, within a specified timeframe.A section of the gathering at the launch of Vaccination WeekThe Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) had earlier this year rendered support to the Ministry of Public Health to replenish its HPV supply, therefore bolstering its vaccination programme.And since the Ministry was able to receive additional vaccines,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping, Nurse Johnson related that “now that we have enough vaccines, all of the girls in the age group can have their doses.”Moreover, Nurse Johnson as the coordinator of Region Three’s week of activities saw it as an opportunity to address the controversies regarding the HPV vaccine, since according to her “we want to do much more on it. So we took on a strategy that we are going to engage the GMOs along with the nurses to meet with the PTA body of the school, do lectures on HPV, and be opened to questions.”“We had some of those sessions already at schools and it was very productive, because we have started vaccinating. We have done hundreds of vaccines,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, so we will be continuing next (this) week…so it is a success so far,” said Nurse Johnson as she pointed out that “we want the public to know more about HPV.”Recently about 350 girls in Region Three were able to get their first dose of the vaccine but, according Nurse Johnson, just over 100 have already received all three of the requisite doses.But there are yet challenges in administering the doses.Nurse Johnson explained that while some girls are captured in the primary school, some of them are missed when they move to secondary level schools in another region.“Maybe some of them are captured in other regions, but we are not sure,” said Nurse Johnson, who pointed out that having children leave school to get their doses may not always be feasible.“To do this they would have to miss school to come back into the Region and because of that we have had some decline in the third doses, but we have to strategise on how we can complete the doses,” said Nurse Johnson.HPV vaccine doses in Region Three, according to her, are administered in the schools.“We actually go to the schools and take it to them,Cheap Jerseys From China, but for the follow-up doses we are encouraging the parents to feel free to bring their children to any health centre, and we can communicate that to the health centre which they would have had their previous doses, so that they can record that the doses are completed,” Nurse Johnson explained. |
