I READ with great interest and enthusiasm in the last Sunday Sun the article by Jeff Broomes: Research Shows It’s Best To Vaccinate Schoolgirls.
My contribution is to commend him for sharing his experiences, and one of, if I may say, “moral suasion” so as to encourage parents and guardians of our females, aged nine to 26, and for males, aged 13 to 21, who have not yet been vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) to arrange to contact the Ministry of Health to get your children vaccinated.
I was and still am appalled to hear from some of the administrators of this vaccine that to date the response has not been good. I found this out when I took my 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son to be vaccinated at the Sir Winston Scott Polyclinic.
I was happy to hear I was about the fourth parent to bring my children, but on reflection, I became very disappointed to hear the response to date was not good, since I know that Dr Viskash Chatrani and many others worked tirelessly at informing the public about the importance of this vaccine.
Please note: I missed the date that it was scheduled to be done at their school and I followed up by calling the Ministry of Health and a representative from their office was very helpful in contacting the clinic to arrange a date and time for the vaccination to be given.
What prompted me even more to send this letter to the editor is that I recently took my son to the paediatrician, and during a discussion I mentioned to him that he received his first shot of the HPV vaccine.
He was also quite impressed and again said that I was the first parent he has spoken to since the campaign started to have the vaccine administered to both males and females.
Parents and guardians, I am pleading with you not to let the good work of Dr Chatrani and his team of other medical experts, PAHO and WHO go unnoticed.
Do not wait until you may have to pay, then to regret not having your children vaccinated while it is free.
In Barbados cervical cancer is recorded as the third most common cause of death in women. Not much has been mentioned about our boys but this vaccine helps to prevent genital warts in males and also females. Please contact the Ministry of Health to arrange to have both your sons and daughters vaccinated.
Remember: prevention is better than cure.
– Faye A. Wood