Accompanied by the ministers of health and education, Emmanuel Macron announced, Tuesday, February 28, in Jarnac, in Charente, a vaccination campaign “widespread” in colleges to eradicate the papillomavirus.
“We are going to generalize from the next start of the school year for the 5e »said the Head of State during a meeting with students in a college in Jarnac (Charente). “It helps prevent a lot of cancers”, added Emmanuel Macron. The announcements come four days before World Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Disease Awareness Day.
Parental consent will be required and vaccination will not be compulsory, the Head of State saying he prefers to carry out “a work of conviction”, without totally excluding an obligation in the future. From September 2023, “prescription and vaccination against HPV (papillomavirus) can be carried out by pharmacists, midwives and nurses”added Emmanuel Macron.
Extremely frequent, these infections are most of the time benign, but they can persist and result in cancer: HPVs are responsible for 2,900 cancers of the cervix causing more than 1,000 deaths per year, 1,500 cancers of the ENT sphere, 1,500 cancers of the anus, 200 cancers of the vulva or vagina and around a hundred cancers of the penis. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), these cancers are completely preventable through screening and vaccination.
Experimentation in the Great East
However, the vaccination coverage rate in France is currently 37% for girls and 9% for boys, while the ten-year cancer control strategy 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.
An experiment carried out in the Grand Est for two years has shown good results among young people schooled in class of 5ethe vaccination rate increasing 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 are counting on the eradication of cervical cancer within fifteen years.