Free HPV vaccination extended to girls up to 18yo in Romania

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The free anti-HPV vaccination will be officially extended to girls up to 18 years old, the Minister of Health, Ioana Mihăilă announced after approving today an Order in this regard. The HPV vaccination campaign has so far only targeted girls in the 11-14 age group.

The HPV vaccination campaign could be extended to boys as well, at a later stage.

Romania is the country in the European Union with the highest incidence and mortality caused by cervical cancer, caused in proportion of 99% by HPV infection.

“HPV vaccination is the best way to prevent cervical cancer, so we have expanded the age group so that more people who may be at higher risk for HPV infection get the free vaccine. , for girls over 14 years of age is an opportunity to recover the vaccination scheme to which they did not have access at the right time“, said Minister Ioana Mihăilă, according to a press release of the Ministry of Health.

The decision to extend the age group took into account the recommendations of the Epidemiology and Oncology commissions of the Ministry of Health, as well as of the National Institute of Public Health. HPV vaccination is performed on eligible people based on requests from parents / legal representatives, who send the requests to family doctors. The applications are centralized in the chronological order of the registration date, and the number of vaccine doses required is requested quarterly to the territorial public health directorate.

28,169 young women in Romania were vaccinated against the HPV virus in the first year when the vaccination campaign  has been resumed after more than one-decade break, according to data released in February this year.

It is the first HPV vaccination campaign carried out in our country after more than 10 years and after a total failure of the first campaign, in 2008.

Around 3,300 Romanian women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. More than half of them lose the fight against the disease, Romania being the country in the European Union with the highest incidence and the highest mortality caused by cervical cancer.

Basically, 5 women in the 20-50 age group die in Romania on average on a daily basis, due to cervical cancer, a disease that can be prevented only by vaccination against the HPV virus.

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