Walter Sisulu University’s Dr Dominic Abaver has alerted the pupils and parents around the Mthatha region about the Human Papillomavirus to assist the Eastern Cape Department of Health (ECDoH) in speeding up the rollout of its vaccine.
HPV is sexually transmitted, but penetrative sex is not required for transmission. Skin-to-skin genital contact is a well-recognised mode of transmission but any skin-to-skin contact may result in the infection.
In South Africa more than five thousand cases of cervical cancer are reported each year, with more than 3000 of these fatal. Almost 80% cervical cancers are caused by HPV and the vaccination prevents the infection of the virus from developing on the cervix.
Abaver, a senior lecturer in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology said he got concerned with the number of vaccinated pupils for HPV since the vaccine had been rolled out in 2014 and wanted to find the cause.
On the project, Abaver works with a Public Health master’s degree student, Lathiwe Mashiyi, whom he said must coordinate a session with the parents of the pupils in Ngangelizwe.
“This is to try and find out why the parents are reluctant for their kids to go for vaccination and we discovered that they have little knowledge about the vaccine,” said Abaver.
The peak time for acquiring infection for both women and men is shortly after becoming sexually active.
In April 2014, a national school-based HPV vaccination program was rolled out in South Africa, targeting Grade 4 girls aged to nine years and later extended up to 14 years.
Abaver added that the parents had their own theories about the vaccine that it will encourage their children sexually active at a young age.
“Other fears the parents had to do with allergies, parents had a fear that the vaccine might worsen them and were sceptical of the side effects the vaccine might have,” added Abaver.
The side effects include swollenness where a pupil was injected, slight headache and dizziness but no one person has them all at the same time, they vary.
Abaver aims to collect the data and submit to the EDoH and advise them so that they can develop programmes to sensitise the parents all around the Eastern Cape so that the rollout can yield good results.
- Anita Roji