The Primary Health Insurance Fund organized a round table in Montauban to raise awareness of vaccination against the papillomavirus, responsible for sexually transmitted infections.
There were people last Tuesday, in the auditorium of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Montauban and Tarn-et-Garonne, an essentially female audience came to attend a very instructive conference on screening and vaccination to avoid of developing cervical cancer.
The participants were welcomed by Clémence Paulian-Soula, director of the Tarn-et-Garonne Primary Health Insurance Fund. She placed this round table in context: “The objective is to bring together in one place all the health professionals of the department to work on prevention through screening for cervical cancer.” The choice of date for this conference was not insignificant, in the middle of Pink October, which shines the spotlight on breast cancer screening.
Cancer of the cervix is also another female disease that can be combated by vaccination against the papillomavirus, which is called HPV.
The director of the CPAM insists: “We vaccinate girls aged 11 to 14, but also boys because they are also carriers of the virus which can turn, for a quarter of them, into various forms of cancer.” The papillomavirus does not only affect girls. The vaccination target can be extended “to 15-19 year olds in populations who have not yet had active sexual relations”, explains Clémence Paulian-Soula. For her, the objective is to “cover 60% of the target population in 2023 and 80% in 2030.”
Figures taken from the situation in Australia where the vaccination rate is 80%. “In this country, there is practically no more cancer of the cervix; this is proof of vaccine efficacy”, continues Clémence Paulian-Soula.
For the information to pass, the organizers of this round table had widened the spectrum of guests to all health professionals: school medicine, PMI, midwives, pharmacists. A clear and precise message.
All that remains is to make it effective in practice, for the good of all and in particular of women so that they live their sexual life to the best of their ability.
Coordinated actions will be conducted throughout the territory of the department, sometimes going to meet the people furthest from information.