Emmanuel Macron announced an annual vaccination campaign once morest the papillomavirus in college, with students from 5e. From September 2023, pharmacists, midwives and nurses will also be able to prescribe the HPV vaccine.
Emmanuel Macron made the announcement himself during a trip to a college in Jarnac (Charente), this Tuesday, February 28. From the start of the 2023 academic year, an annual vaccination campaign will be launched in middle schools once morest the human papillomavirus (or HPV), for all students in 5e. In addition, still from next September, pharmacists, midwives and nurses will be able to prescribe the vaccine, which has two doses, 100% covered by Social Security.
Each year, the papillomavirus causes approximately 6,000 cancers, including 1,500 of the anus and a hundred of the penis. Most often, HPV infections are eliminated by the body on its own, but they can become chronic and that is when cancerous cells can appear. This is why vaccination is recommended before the beginning of sexual life, that is to say for girls and boys between 11 and 14 years old and up to the age of 19 years old. Among men who have sex with men (MSM), this recommendation is pushed up to age 26. Currently, the vaccination rate is low, at 37% for girls and 9% for boys. The objective is to vaccinate 80% of the population concerned.
800,000 pupils protected from the papillomavirus per year
The vaccine is an important lever for preventing cancers favored by HPV. The Élysée relies on an experiment, carried out in the Grand-Est region, where the so-called “to go towards”, that is to say a proactive vaccination campaign, made it possible to increase the vaccination coverage of adolescents from 9% to 31% in two years. The presidency estimates that with the new prevention measures, 800,000 students will be protected each year once morest HPV-related cancers.
“France has one of the lowest vaccination coverages in Europe, particularly in the less economically advantaged populations, inviting us to rethink the policy of vaccination once morest HPV, by proposing for example to organize this vaccination through school medicine, by accompanying it with health and sexuality education”noted last November the Epidemiological Bulletin of Public Health France regarding HIV and sexually transmitted infections. A message heard by the President of the Republic.
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