Johannesburg - North West Health MEC Madoda Sambatha on Monday urged parents and caregivers to sign consent forms for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination.
The vaccination campaign to prevent cervical cancer is set to come to an end on March 15. The Health Department together with the Department of Education and Sports Development. They worked with health school nurses to kick start the first round of the vaccination last month. This was done in an effort to safeguard the health of young girls.
The campaign targeted grade four girl pupils at public schools, who are aged nine.
It is run twice a year by the Department of Health. And the second dose will be administered between August and September 2019.
“We are now busy with mop up operation. We following up on young girls that turned nine years in March. Our focus is on those that were absent on our first visit and children that did not have consent forms,” said HPV Administrator, Elizabeth Moreki.
Sambatha said the success of an immunization campaign such as this one is highly reliant on the parental acceptance of the vaccine as effective life saving immunization. “It is important that we protect our children, future women of South Africa against cervical cancer. The focus here is prevention and promotion rather than curative,” she said.
Sambatha added that parents need to ensure that they have signed and returned the consent forms they receive from the schools. As no pupil will be vaccinated without parental consent.
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