Kids in PRIMARY SCHOOL must have HPV jab – to protect against cancer-causing STI
PRIMARY school kids need to be protected from STIs - because they're having sex at such a young age, doctors have warned.
Girls and boys should have HPV jabs at 11 or younger, to help prevent oral and cervical cancer.
Girls currently get their first dose of the vaccine in year eight - the second year of high school - aged 12 or 13.
But it needs to be given before pupils are sexually active, to protect against the HPV virus - which is linked to cancer.
The British Medical Association yesterday called on health chiefs to lower the age at which the jab is given to 11 or younger.
But critics claimed it could encourage more youngsters to sleep around - placing them at risk of pregnancy and other diseases.
BMA delegates voted “overwhelmingly” to lobby for the change at their annual conference, in Brighton.
Dr Lucy-Jane Davis, who proposed the motion, said: “There’s really good evidence that the vaccine works better if you catch people before they’re 16.
“But what we really need to do is catch them before they have any kind of sexual contact. The ideal is to catch them before they’re in that environment.
If we can do that in primary school, then we’d have universal coverage which could be a very sensible and pragmatic approach
Dr Lucy-Jane Davis
“If we can do that in primary school, then we’d have universal coverage which could be a very sensible and pragmatic approach.”
One in four women in the UK first had sex before the age of 16, with a third of those who had it at 13 or 14 not using condoms.
Norman Wells, from the Family Education Trust, warned kids will be “lulled into a false sense of security” if given the jab at primary school.
He added: “They may assume they are protected against the worst effects of sexual promiscuity and can therefore engage in casual sex without consequence.
“The surest protection against HPV is not to be found in vaccines but in keeping sexual intimacy within a lifelong, mutually faithful relationship, with an uninfected partner.”
The BMA also want the vaccine to be given to boys, as it is in Australia and Canada, to protect them against oral cancers.
The government’s advisory panel on vaccinations is believed to have recently suggested widening the programme to boys.
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Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisation at Public Health England, said 12 or 13 was the “most appropriate” age to give girls the jab.
She added: “The majority of girls are first infected with HPV after the age of 12 or 13, so the vaccine works as a preventative measure.
“We also know from research before the programme came in that parents were less comfortable with their daughters being vaccinated against HPV at primary school.”
Around 3,100 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the UK each year, with 900 dying from it.
It is the most common cancer in women aged under 35, and claimed the life of Big Brother contestant Jade Goody, aged 27.
Robert Music, from Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, said: “Any changes to the age at which it is offered must follow scientific evidence and factor in potential impact on uptake.”