HPV vaccine sees strong uptake

P.E.I.'s Chief Health Officer is pleased with the number of children on the Island who have received the HPV vaccine.

This is the first year the vaccine has been offered to grade six boys as part of the province's immunization program. A full analysis won't be complete until after the boys have had all three shots, which will be done by the end of the school year, but Dr. Heather Morrison said preliminary data shows close to 80 per cent are getting the vaccine.

"We're very fortunate in P.E.I. that we've tended to have a really good uptake of our vaccines," said Morrison.

"It's delivered by public health nurses who do a great job at explaining to patients and getting the children and students their vaccine."

Numbers for girls are up, said Morrison. In 2008 just over 81 per cent of grade six girls got the vaccine. Last year that number rose to just over 87 per cent

"It's going to be way down the road that you're going to see any effect on our cervical cancer rates, or anal genital cancers, rectal cancers," said Morrison.

"It may be a shorter time before we see start to see an impact on the genital warts because those may happen sooner."

The vaccine can help prevent infection with certain strains of human papillomavirus associated with some cancers and genital warts.