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Local uptake of a cancer-preventing vaccine needs to improve, the new acting medical officer of health for Windsor-Essex says.
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In his first report to the regional board of health, Dr. Mehdi Aloosh emphasized infection prevention — specifically through vaccination for the human papillomavirus (HPV).
“I think we can do a better job together to keep our children safe from HPV, which can cause various types of cancer.”
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in Canada, affecting three out of four people who have been sexually active, Aloosh said. It is spread through “intimate” skin-on-skin contact, be it vaginal, oral, anal, or other.
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, HPV causes almost all cervical cancers and is related to more than 80 per cent of anal cancers, nearly half of penile cancers, 40 per cent of vaginal and vulvar cancers, and more than a quarter of mouth and throat cancers.
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HPV is also responsible for 90 per cent of genital warts, which can appear weeks or months after skin-to-skin sexual contact with an infected person, the cancer society says.
“This virus does not discriminate between female and male, it does not discriminate between young and old, it does not discriminate between poor and wealthy, and it does not discriminate based on sexual orientation,” Aloosh said.
Windsor-Essex has achieved a 60 per cent vaccination rate among those eligible, Aloosh said — a “good” rate, but one that could be better.
The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer has launched an action plan to eliminate cervical cancer in the county by 2040. To do so, 90 per cent of girls must be vaccinated against HPV by age 15.
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The vaccine against cancer-causing types of HPV is administered for free to consenting Grade 7 students in schools but is not mandatory. Outside of schools, the two-dose vaccine series is available at primary care provider offices for about $200 per dose.
“We can successfully prevent cancer caused by HPV if our kids and young adults are vaccinated soon enough before infection is transmitted to them, which is prior to their first sexual experience,” Aloosh said.
More than 270 million doses of the vaccine have been administered around the world “without serious adverse events,” Aloosh said. The vaccine has been administered in Ontario schools since the 2007-08 school year.
“You can imagine that teens and young adults who start being sexually active are particularly at risk of infection.
“Some people don’t have any symptoms so they don’t know they have the infection and pass it on to other people.”
Every year in Ontario, more than 500 people are diagnosed with cervical cancer, Aloosh said. About 200 of them, some of them in Windsor and Essex County, die as a result.
Local HPV vaccination rate needs improvement: medical officer of health - Windsor Star
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