School girls shunning free cancer vaccine

6 Feb 2012, 6:50 pm   -   Source: SBS, Luke Waters
3 Comments

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An increasing number of young girls are shunning potentially life-saving cervical cancer vaccinations due to a lack of awareness and a fear of needles, Luke Waters reports.

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An increasing number of young girls are shunning potentially life saving vaccinations due to a lack of awareness and a fear of needles, Luke Waters reports.

The Cancer Council is alarmed at the statistics and has launched an education campaign aiming to improve knowledge and the take-up of HPV vaccinations.

At the age of 12 or 13, about 75 per cent of girls take up the offer of free Human Papilloma Virus vaccinations at school.

The Cancer Council hopes to raise that to 100 per cent through an educational video aimed at girls in the target demographic.

The Cancer Council has enlisted the girls themselves to help produce the video and hone in on the issues seen as barriers to vaccination - which include fear of needles.

Now, there's a push for boys to benefit from a similar free school-based vaccination.

The federal government is considering a recommendation that the program be fully subsidised.

Parents are encouraged to ensure vaccination consent cards are signed and returned to schools as soon as possible.

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Your Comments

Good

Nidhi - from Melbourne, 4 months ago

It's good that government is affording to control concer.we should appreciate it.

Seek credible information

Sian Morton - from NSW, 4 months ago

It is certainly everyone's right to say no to a vaccination. No one is suggesting that vaccination should be compulsory. There is ample, well-researched evidence to support vaccination policy and, sadly, lots of error-ridden, fear-mongering information which might discourage people from vaccination. Nothing that can be injected into your body can ever be considered 100% safe, so you will never hear such claims made about any vaccination. Each individual needs to consider the risks v benefits.

We are not sheep

Leela Johnson - from Wollongong, 4 months ago

It is everyone's right to say no to a vaccination. We are not sheep to be all put through the same sheep dip treatment. I personally know a young woman who had the cervical cancer vaccination and was hospitalised within 24 hours afterwards with "unexplained" palpitations, rapid shallow breathing and an unable to stand or walk. The vaccine may be "free" but some pharmaceutical company is also making some serious money from it. Has this vaccine been proven to be safe?

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