School-Based Prophylactic HPV Vaccination in a Northern Community

• Main Author: Sullivan, Peter
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: UBC Journal of Family Practice Research and Scholarship 2015
• Subjects: Vaccination; Education; Immunization Programs; HPV; Canada; Northwest Territories
• Online Access: http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/familypractice/article/view/187033

BACKGROUND: The HPV vaccine has been designed for cervical cancer prevention, and has been approved as prophylactic treatment in Canada. Following the lead of other Canadian provinces, the Northwest Territories commenced a school-based prophylactic HPV vaccination program this year, which is being offered to girls in Grade 4 and Grades 9-12. OBJECTIVE: To determine if the vaccination program is successful in the context of an isolated northern community. METHOD: The vaccination programs are administered through Public Health, thus the vaccination history was reviewed for every student who was offered the HPV vaccine in Grade 4 and Grades 9-12. This was done with the public health nurses who administer the vaccination program. Each female student's vaccination history was reviewed for compliance with previous vaccination programs. Contraindications and reasons for refusal, if given, were also reviewed.FINDINGS: (detailed analysis pending) A large percentage of the high-school age girls received the vaccine, while a very small percentage of the Grade 4 girls received the vaccine.DISCUSSION: The HPV vaccine is clearly well accepted by the high school age group; however, the uptake for the vaccine was poor in the Grade 4 age group. CONCLUSIONS: For the HPV vaccine to be effective, it needs to be administered prior to exposure to the human papilloma virus. Thus, for a population wide vaccination program to be successful, this vaccine should be administered prior to the age when individuals are sexually active. Although there was good uptake in the high school group, many individuals at this age may be sexually active. On the other hand, the HPV vaccination was not successful in the female Grade 4 population in this study. Suggestions for improving the success of this program include increased education surrounding the vaccine, as well as offering the vaccine to a slightly older age group.