By Precious Oham
The Technical Committe on the elimination of Cervical Cancer in Ekiti State on Monday sensitized Area Education Officers in the state on the need to educate parents on the benefits of Human Papilomavirus, HPV, vaccine.
The group carried out the awareness during an advocacy visit to the Area Education Officers in Ado-Ekiti.
Leading the delegation, the State Health Educator, State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Mrs Oguntoye Olajumoke appealed to the Education Officers to pass the message on the benefits of the vaccine to parents at the grassroots level.
She noted that the sensitization will cut across all the relevant stakeholders in ensuring that the girl-child from age 9-14 years are vaccinated to prevent infection with HPV types 16 and 18 that are known to cause cervical cancer.
Her words: “They are the key officers when we are talking about the vaccination on the girl-child of age 9-14 years because most of them are in schools. They need to know the information, seek the consent of the parents in their PTA meetings so that they will help us to create the awareness.
“The essence is that when it is time for us to administer this vaccine, it will not be difficult because the awareness might have reached the parents. We are still going to visit all the stakeholders in the state.”
Speaking at the advocacy visit, the Director, Disease Control and Immunization in Ekiti State, Dr. Nicholas Ojo urged the Education Officers to own the programme to ensure that every child is vaccinated whether in school or out-of-school.
On her part, the State Immunization Officer, Ogundola Omolabake revealed that due to the available resources, they are limiting the vaccination to age 9-14 years adding that they are capturing all primary and secondary schools in the state.