Officials to trial cancer vaccine on school girls

 THE Health Department and its development partners plan to trial a cancer immunisation vaccine on school-aged girls in selected provinces, a health official says.

Maternal health technical adviser Dr Lahui Geita highlighted that during the conclusion of a three-day workshop for health managers in Kokopo last week.

“We now want to focus on youth and adolescents who are affected by many health issues,” Geita said.

He said they would trial a cancer immunisation vaccine on young girls to help prevent cancer. 

“Cervical cancer is the cause of deaths in many mothers in PNG and we will try it in two or three provinces and if successful, it would be rolled out in other provinces.”

Geita said the programme would see the assistance of donor partners and the trial would be free.

Other issues discussed at the workshop included HIV and family and maternal health for women and children.

Geita said some women in ENB missed out on the services provided by health facilities.

“The Health Department encourages every pregnant mother to visit a health facility and get tested for HIV and other illnesses.”

He said syphilis was another concern and mothers should get tested for the disease.

Geita said the maternal death rate in PNG was the highest in the Pacific region and one way to address this was for pregnant mothers to undergo clinical checks so they could be helped to reduce deaths.

He said family planning was another concern and was available for young couples who were not married.