“Grave Concerns” For Teenage Girls As Only Half Receive Cancer Vaccine

Senior medics in the Royal College of Physicians have released a warning for parents of Irish teenage girls who are yet to be vaccinated with the cervical cancer vaccine.

Last year, only 50% of girls had started the vaccine at the beginning of the school year, well under the 80% target.

Sign ups for the HPV vaccine dropped by 15% in the past year, mainly due to many people's fears that the vaccine was unsafe and had dangerous side effects.

As reported in the Irish Independent however, the European medicines watchdog investigated claims of the potential link between the HPV vaccine and symptoms including pains in the limbs and an abnormal heart rate.

The watchdog gave the vaccine the all clear and determined it was safe.

The medics are urging parents to vaccinate their daughters, and to be aware that by not doing so there is "the very real risk that they will develop cervical cancer in later life".

Professor Karina Butler, chair of the national immunisation advisory committee said that:

"As the vaccine is more effective the earlier it is given, we encourage all parents to have their daughters complete the recommended schedule of HPV vaccines: a two-dose HPV vaccine series before age 15, or three doses in those older.

"It is so tragic to see a young woman, often at the age when their family is still young, battling for her life against what is now a vaccine-preventable cancer."

The HPV vaccine protects against two types of viruses, HPV 16 and 18, the cause of 70% of cervical cancers.