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Source: ONE News -
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Schools will soon start offering all teenage girls the controversial cervical cancer vaccine Gardisal.
Most are welcoming the free vaccine, but some schools have opted out, questioning if school is the right place for it.
Public health nurses from the District Health Boards have been going over to schools to inform and educate with a Health Ministry DVD.
The DVD, aimed at young girls, informs them that being immunised
means that they are less likely to get cervical cancer later in
life and tells them about the human papilloma virus and how it
causes cervical cancer.
Female students watched the DVD at one of the schools, Tauranga's
Mt Maunganui College and by their reaction, it seems to have hit
the mark.
The DVD was called straightforward, easy to understand and getting to the point straight away.
Girls under 16 will now take information home for parental consent. For older girls, that's encouraged, though legally, it's their call.
The Mt Maunganui College principal, Terry Collett, supports the decision for girls to be informed about Gardisal and cervical cancer.
"School's the ideal place to capture the students, to give them the opportunity to look after their future lives," says Collett.
Schools have until the end of this week to either opt in or out of the vaccine programme.
Figures obtained from the ministry show most, like Mt Maunganui, are welcoming it, 98% in fact.
Only 40 schools have said no or are yet to reply. One of those is Tauranga's Bethlehem College.
Phillip Nash, Principal of Bethlehem College, says religion is playing a factor in their decision.
"We obviously take a stand as a Christian school on chastity before marriage and faithfulness in marriage and we don't want to compromise that message," says Nash.
The college says it's a parental decision, made alongside a girl's GP, not one for schools.
Nash says the school is not shutting young girls from getting the vaccine.
"We're just putting the responsibility back where we think it belongs," he says.
Canterbury teens will not get the vaccine at school either. Instead its being offered through local GPs who argue it makes more sense that way.
Professor Les Toop, Christchurch Pegasus GP, says it is core business for general practice and it should be seen as just one of many immunisations.
"People will make informed choices and we believe through general practice they're more likely to make that informed choice," says Toop.
But the ministry says Canterbury's success rate with GP immunisations isn't replicated elsewhere.
"School-based programmes result in a much better uptake of the vaccine and that's why we're promoting it through the schools," says Dr Greg Simmons, of the Ministry of Health.
The ministry says the higher the uptake, the more lives potentially saved, which is as many as 30 each year.
