While vaccination once morest the papillomavirus would eradicate all cancers linked to the disease according to experts, vaccination coverage in France is still too low.
Emmanuel Macron is expected Tuesday in Jarnac (Charente) where he must “make a decisive announcement to eradicate the papillomavirus”, responsible for 30,000 precancerous lesions of the cervix and 6,000 new cases of cancer in women and men, announced the Elysée.
The Head of State, accompanied by the Ministers of Health and Education, François Braun and Pap Ndiaye, will go in the followingnoon to a college where he “will attend a vaccination session organized within the ‘establishment’, explained the Presidency of the Republic, four days before World Awareness Day around diseases induced by the human papillomavirus (HPV).
Cancers that can be eliminated through vaccination
Extremely frequent, these infections are most of the time benign, but they can persist and lead to cancer: HPVs are responsible for 2900 cancers of the cervix causing more than 1000 deaths per year, 1500 cancers of the ENT sphere, 1500 cancers of the anus, 200 cancers of the vulva or vagina and a hundred cancers of the penis.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), these cancers can be completely eliminated through screening and vaccination. However, the vaccination coverage rate in France is currently 37% for girls and 9% for boys, while the ten-year strategy for the fight once morest cancer 2021-2030 aims for a target of 80% within seven years.
Vaccination is now recommended for girls and boys between the ages of 11 and 14. It can also be offered as a catch-up until the age of 19 and remains possible until the age of 26 for men who have sex with men.
Positive results in Australia
An experiment carried out in the Grand Est for two years has shown good results among young people schooled in 5th grade, the vaccination rate rising from 9% to 27% the first year and from 14% to 31% the second.
In Australia, where vaccination takes place at school, the rate of people infected with HPV causing cervical cancer fell from 22.7% in 2005-2007 to 1.5% in 2015 among young women aged 18-24, while forecasts expect the eradication of cervical cancer within 15 years.
