Parents block plans to vaccinate nine-year-olds against sex virus

BRIAN BRADY
The Scotsman
Jan. 09, 2007

WORRIED parents have blocked government plans to vaccinate girls as young as nine against a sexually-transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

Health chiefs have abandoned proposals to offer the jab against human papilloma virus (HPV) to primary school children after parents complained that it was inappropriate for girls of such a young age.

Scotland on Sunday revealed last summer that ministers were considering offering the jab to children in a desperate attempt to stop the "epidemic" in cervical cancer. The proposals for a nationwide scheme followed successful trials of a new vaccine in Glasgow.

But ministers have now been forced to concentrate on plans for the treatment on girls of at least 12 - itself a hugely controversial move.

In September, the European Commission licensed the first HPV vaccine, Gardasil, for use by females aged between nine and 26.

But campaigners protested that immunising young girls from HPV, which can cause genital warts and is blamed for up to 70% of cases of cervical cancer, could encourage them to start having sex earlier.

The government U-turn came after medical experts who make the final recommendations on the baseline defences against HPV were warned of parents' opposition. The experts also threw out proposals to vaccinate boys against HPV, despite evidence that they can transmit the virus through sexual contact.

Documents from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) reveal the Department of Health has been conducting inquiries into the delicate proposition of vaccinating children for more than a year.

"Research has already been carried out on the attitudes of parents to the vaccination of children of eight to 10 years of age - ie in the last years of primary school," a meeting of the JCVI's HPV sub-group was told in September.

"Parents were of the opinion that this should be carried out in older children at secondary school, in conjunction with a sexual education programme -through Personal and Social Education (PSE)."

The trials in Scotland, which involved 300 women aged 16 to 23, were criticised by the Catholic Church, which said they would lead to children being vaccinated.

In Scotland, more than 500 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year and around 100 die.

The trials of Gardasil proved the vaccine to be highly effective against HPV, but experts say the treatment is best administered before women become sexually active.

The experts, who are expected to give ministers a final recommendation within the next few weeks, will not give the green light to a new vaccination programme without a commitment to a revamped sex-education programme led by school nurses.