Cancer project to start

THE Health Department partnership with Education Department and Rotary Club of Boroko announces that the pilot project for cervical cancer vaccination in National Capital District will begin in April.
Health Secretary Pascoe Kase said the cervical cancer vaccination, which was also called human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination, would protect girls from developing cervical cancer in the future.
Kase said the HPV vaccine arrived in Port Moresby on Jan 20 for the vaccination programme and girls aged 9 to 14 years would be offered two doses of the vaccinations at their school this year.
“Cervical cancer is here to stay in PNG, some have got them but how do we protect our young girls, for the future and that’s what we are trying to do by piloting the project in NCD, and then we roll it out to other parts of the country, certainly it will require funding, for us to go nationwide,” Kase told a media conference.
National HPV vaccine project coordinator Dr Edward Waramin said: “We intend to start vaccinating girls, mainly in primary schools and the reason is because the vaccination works best, when it is given to girls when they are still young,”
“We have teams of nurses who are going to go into schools and vaccinate girls within the criteria.”
Rotary Club of Boroko chairman Dr Lautofa Pulotu said 56,000 doses arrived which would cater for 26,000 girls.
The vaccine were funded by Rotary International which cost over K1 million.