HEALTH-E: Despite a vaccine for cervical cancer, many challenges remain

When my mom was diagnosed with stage two cervical cancer, she was advised to have her womb removed as they said it was completely damaged and she was bleeding all the time,” remembered Shirly Seepe, 44, a mother of two adolescent daughters from Limpopo.

This percentage is the threshold needed for adequate protection of the population, according to the Department of Health.The number of vaccinated learners dropped below 80% in 2016, but increased again in 2017 to 83%, according to figures provided by Dr Yogan Pillay, Deputy Director-General at the Department of Health.

The HPV vaccine works best if given to people before they start having sex because the virus is so common and contagious that the majority of sexually active people will be exposed to it.Up to two-thirds of South African women between the ages of 15 and 24 are infected with at least one strain of HPV at any given time, according to estimates provided by Dr Tendesayi Kufa from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases.

But Pillay says the expansion is difficult: “We would love to expand, but there are no additional funds. [To offer the vaccine to more people] we would need either a single-dose vaccine or significantly lower prices.” Nonzwakazi Faye, an 83-year-old from rural Eastern Cape, refused to sign the consent form for her granddaughter’s vaccination earlier in 2019 because she did not understand what it was about.My child was not vaccinated. I don’t understand how a child, at the age of nine, is at risk of getting cervical cancer. The child is too young to get such a disease. Back in my day, there were no such things,” she told Health-e News.

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