Dr. Melody Ennis, Acting Director in the Family Health Unit at the Ministry of Health (MOH) says the Government’s introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into secondary schools across the island has been a success.

“I am going to say it has been a success because we have vaccinated over 5 thousand students to date, which means that prior to this programme there were 5 thousand girls with the potential of contracting the HPV virus and moving on to cancer,” she said.

Last May the Health Ministry announced plans to introduce the vaccine to 200,000 schoolgirls aged 9 to 14 as a means of preventing cervical cancer. The vaccine was to be administered free of charge.

The most common cancers in Jamaica are prostate, lung and colorectal in men; and breast, cervical and colorectal cancers in women. Prostate and breast cancers are the leading cause of cancer-related deaths.

Globally, cervical cancer is the second most common type of cancer in women with over 85% occurring in developing countries.

The World Health Organization says 528,000 news cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed and there are approximately 270,000 deaths. By 2050, without any intervention, cases diagnosed with cervical cancer will increase to one million per year with approximately 90% of the deaths will be in developing countries.

Hilary Morgan, one of the Vice Principals at the Manchester High School says first form students at the school have received the vaccine. To date, she says none of the students have complained of any negative side effects from the vaccination.

“Not to my knowledge, no-one has complained. Our nurse hasn’t said anything to us, so I’m not aware of any complaints,” she said.

Dr. Ennis says the side effects of the HPV vaccine are not severe, and is encouraging students not to worry. “What you get, the side effects, common side effects, it’s going to be a little painful so you might have pain at the sight of the injection, you will have a little redness, you will have some swelling and like all vaccines, children might get a little fever. Some persons complain of lethargy. It usually lasts no more than 4 days, give it a week and persons are fine. That’s the typical picture of the side effects that you get from receiving this vaccine,” she says. 

Currently, it appears that the vaccine protects against HPV for at least 6 years.