If you’re a grade six female student in BC you are now eligible to be vaccinated for the HPV virus according to Northern Health.
Public Health Liaison Nurse, Kathryn Germuth says the HPV vaccine has not been as widely adopted since it was introduced by the province in 2008.
“Part of the issue we have seen in BC is the HPV uptake for the vaccine has been lower than some of the other school aged vaccines and it has been a consistent trend since 2008.”
Germuth adds the disease is prevalent.
“HPV is one of the most common sexually transmitted diseases in the world today, 3 out of 4 sexually active Canadians will be infected at some point in their life.”
The vaccine is also provided to males who are at increased of the infection.
HPV is the main cause of cervical cancer and is the second most frequent cancer in women aged 20-44 after breast cancer.
Two vaccines are approved in Canada they are Cervarix and Gardasil.