Poster girl backs teen jab message

In the final part of our series looking at immunisation in the Western Bay, health reporter Jamie Morton looks at the lifesaving benefits of the HPV vaccination for teenage girls.

Western Bay health workers fighting to hoist the region's bleak rate for immunising infants are having headaches trying to break through to another problem group - teenagers.
In the Western Bay, just 38 per cent of women aged 18 and 19 have received the three jabs needed to protect them from HPV - a virus which in 99 per cent of cases is the cause of life-threatening cervical cancer.
The three injections, given over a six-month period, are free to girls aged 12 to 18, and also for young women born in 1990 or 1991.
The Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation has been contracted to zero in on those aged 18 and 19, with a target to cover 50 per cent of the 1800 women in that age group, PHO promotion co-ordinator Tiana Bennett said.
"That doesn't seem like a lot - but it's a real hard group to connect with."
Not only did the PHO have the job of getting the women to the doctors clinic but the organisation also had to encourage them to return for their two follow-up shots.
The PHO has renewed its HPV campaign and plans to push the message at Bay of Plenty Polytechnic's orientation week next month.
"We'll be spreading that message everywhere, effectively," Mrs Bennett said.
Mrs Bennett's daughter Summer, 20, was the PHO's poster child when the free jabs were introduced two years ago and remains just as passionate about the issue now.
"One of my close friends got cervical cancer and what she went through wasn't very nice," said Summer, whose face has been splashed across newspapers, cinema screens and campaign material.
"It left me thinking, if the vaccination is free, why wouldn't you get it?"
She believed the 18 and 19-year-old cluster was a tough group to reach. "When you're that age, getting the HPV vaccine just isn't very high on your priority list.
"It's not something you're worrying about and for a lot of people, there's that view 'well, it's not going to happen to me'."
But HPV infections do happen - and to four out of five women in their lifetime.
Mrs Bennett said teenagers in that age group needed to know that time was quickly running out for them to receive the free shot, with the eligibility period ending at the end of this year.
The Bay of Plenty District Health Board also offers the HPV vaccine to Year 8 students free of charge through its in-schools immunisation programme.
There are 31 schools throughout the Western Bay signed up. The schools will receive information and HPV vaccinations for Year 8s who have received parental consent this year.
The first round of vaccinations begin on Monday. The vaccine can also be obtained from GPs and health practices free of charge to girls who were born after January 1, 1990 - or before their 20th birthday.
THE FACTS
The cervical cancer vaccine (Gardasil) is available free to girls and young women aged 12 to 19. Young women born in 1990 or 91 can get the vaccine from their doctor, practice nurse or health clinic, while most other girls and young women aged 12 to 18 can get the vaccine at school. Parents of girls younger than 16 are required to fill out a consent form.
It is administered through three injections to the upper arm over six months.
The vaccine is more effective on those who aren't sexually active because they would not have been exposed to human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer.
Studies show the vaccine protects against HPV infection for five years after immunisation and suggest protection will last much longer.
The vaccine does not protect against all HPV types that cause cervical cancer, so if a woman has ever been sexually active, she still needs to have a smear test every year between the ages of 20 and 70.
For more information visit: www.cervicalcancervaccine.govt.nz