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Canwest News Service
Vancouver’s Catholic archbishop says parental consent should be required before girls receive vaccine to protect them against a sexually transmitted virus.
But health officials say all girls should be immunized against the cancer- causing human papilloma virus, or HPV, and are hoping to increase the number who sign up for it this year.
The province allows students under 19 to be vaccinated without the consent of parents or guardians as long as they understand the consequences.
About one-third of the girls immunized last year – some as young as 14 – gave their own "mature minor consent," estimates Dr. Monika Naus, director of immunization for the B.C. Centre of Disease Control.
But Archbishop Rev. J. Michael Miller said in a September letter to parents of students attending Catholic schools that the schools won’t allow girls to be vaccinated without parents’ consent.
"The option known as ‘mature minor consent’ – which means that children under the age of 19 may consent or refuse immunization, regardless of the parent’s or guardian’s wishes – will not be permitted."
The letter says while the vaccination program "is not inherently wrong, parents need to make an informed decision and communicate it in a way that can serve to strengthen their child in the virtue of chastity and reinforce her appreciation of abstinence as the only truly healthy choice."
Meanwhile, B.C. health officials are pushing to increase the number of girls who receive the vaccine after only two-thirds signed up for the first dose last fall.
The new vaccine, offered for the first time last year to girls in Grades 6 and 9, got off to a slow start as some parents were bound by cultural or religious beliefs and others feared it would give girls a false sense that sex was safer than it is.
Naus said she expects more parents will come on board once they realize how important the vaccine is.
"One of the challenges of this vaccine is that it is only offered to girls so it sticks it out like a sore thumb . . . it makes it more obviously associated with sex as well," she said.
"Over time people will become more comfortable with this because it’s part of the preventive measures."
About 64.7 per cent of Grade 6 students and 66.4 per cent of those in Grade 9 – 23,000 students in each grade – received the first dose of the HPV vaccine last fall, according to the Centre for Disease Control website.
The vaccination, which requires three shots over six months, is aimed at protecting women against HPV, which is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections in Canada and can lead to cervical cancer.
Dan Moric, associate superintendent of the Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese, said it isn’t taking a stand on the issue one way or another but notes "abstinence is the healthiest choice."
But Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.’s chief medical health officer, said even chaste girls can get HPV, noting a high number of women contract the disease after they get married.
"It’s important to realize that having this vaccine does not imply girls will run out and become sexually active," Kendall said. "I’d recommend the vaccine even for chaste women because you don’t know what your partner did before you met him."
The vaccine, Gardisil, targets the two strains of the infection responsible for 70 per cent of cervical cancer. The vaccine is not licensed in Canada for boys.
Kendall noted between 5,000 and 10,000 women every year undergo minor surgery because of abnormalities to their cervix caused by HPV. Although most people who get HPV will see it cleared on its own, for others it will become a chronic problem.
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer for Canadian women aged 20 to 44.
The vaccine will not prevent all cervical cancers, meaning women will still have to have annual pap smears.
ksinoski@vancouversun.com
