Portland Health Department Surpasses HPV Vaccination Target

A total of 988 students across Portland were vaccinated against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) ahead of the new school year, surpassing the target by 31.7 per cent.

“Each parish was given a target of HPV vaccinations to be administered to students attending health facilities for school medicals. Portland’s target was 750,” said Medical Officer of Health for the parish, Dr. Sharon Lewis, during a recent meeting of the Portland Municipal Corporation in Port Antonio.

“High commendations to parents, guardians, our healthcare team, and/or schools in Portland for their continued support of the immunisation programme. Our collaborative work to protect our children now will reap great health benefits for them and the population at large in the future,” Dr. Lewis said.

The HPV vaccine helps to protect against several cancers later in life, including cervical, throat, penile, and anal cancers. It is now part of Jamaica’s immunisation schedule, routinely offered to children aged nine to 14 years.

The Medical Officer encouraged parents and guardians to ensure that their children are fully immunised in keeping with Jamaica’s national immunisation schedule, which includes the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, which is administered at 12 and 18 months.

She noted that vaccination remains one of the safest and most effective methods of preventing serious infectious diseases such as measles.

She said that while the disease has been eliminated from Jamaca some countries are experiencing a reintroduction of the virus.

“Measles outbreaks continue to occur in several countries globally and there’s always a possibility that the virus can be reintroduced into Jamaica because of international travel,” she said, encouraging parents to monitor fever and rashes.