Health Ministry prepares action plan to grow trust in vaccination against HPV

The Ministry of Health organised a working seminar on Thursday, attended by Romanian and foreign specialists, patients, family doctors, to prepare an action plan to inform and educate the population regarding the vaccine against HPV, but also about vaccination in general, shows a press release sent AGERPRES.

"We are the only country in Europe that is still discussing the introduction of HPV vaccination. The Ministry of Health has resumed the vaccination campaign against this virus only for the girls whose parents requested this and we want to extend the campaign for this age category as well as for others age categories. After the incident 11 years ago that threw a shade over HPV vaccination, we want to turn the current campaign into a success. The Ministry of Health team supports vaccination and we are looking at adopting measures to increase vaccination coverage in general," said Minister Victor Costache, quoted in a statement.

The meeting on Thursday was held with the support of the Bureau of the World Health Organisation for Romania.

The Ministry of Health distributed in the territory the first 20,000 doses for the resumption of HPV vaccination. Free vaccination is starting this month in the family doctors' offices at girls between the ages of 11 and 14, for which parents have requested vaccination in 2017 and 2018, including those who have passed this age if they applied.

According to the Framework Agreement concluded by the Ministry of Health with the provider for a period of 4 years, up to 2,100,000 doses can be purchased for the extension of the campaign.

The Ministry of Health calls on parents to request information from family doctors. Family doctors should also inform parents in a transparent and fair manner about HPV vaccination.