Latest update April 4th, 2025 6:13 AM
Health Minister urges public to get HPV vaccinated to reduce risk of developing cancer
Kaieteur News – With low vaccination rate being recorded currently, the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony on Monday encouraged both male and female to get their Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine as it would help reduce their risk of developing cancer.
The minister was at the time speaking at the opening ceremony of the Regional Health Officers (RHOs) conference at the ministry’s Brickdam, Georgetown office. He was at the time listing some key areas that need to be addressed in the regions and plans moving forward in terms of improving healthcare services across the country.
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony
The minister said one of their focuses right now is getting the increased uptake of the HPV vaccines. “We also want to encourage both male and female to have their HPV vaccination,” he noted. The minister mentioned to the gathering of Regional Health Officers that the uptake of the HPV vaccines must be a prominent programme in all the regions. “Right now the numbers are very low and we need to increase the uptake of HPV vaccination,” he said.
According to the minister, this is necessary because when they look at their cervical cancer rates among women, it is the second most prominent cancer.
“Cervical cancer rate among women is the second most prominent cancer or more prevalent cancer that we have, breast cancer being the number one and cervical being number two and this is something we need to pay attention to and we can prevent cervical cancer from happening if we have a wider coverage of HPV vaccination,” the minister mentioned.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infections (STI) and can cause health problems including genital warts and cancers. HPV vaccines are administered to prevent some of the health effects HPV causes.
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