Should Protecting Your Kids from Cancer Really Be Optional?

If your children go to public school, they will need to be vaccinated against the Human Papilloma Virus, or HPV. This is a new option—and not everyone likes it. Those who oppose the change point out that you catch HPV through sex and other non-sexual skin-to-skin contact, unlike infections like measles or whooping cough that you can catch if someone in the classroom has it and coughs on you. Why, they say, should the HPV vaccine be required for school?

Because they save lives, that’s why.

HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer. The vaccine, which can be given as early as 9 years of age, is highly effective against the strains of HPV that cause problems if youth get all three doses.

However, Ontario isn’t doing all that great with getting youth immunized. Some parents associate HPV with sex and feel that their children are too young, even when they are in high school (although surveys repeatedly show that half of high school students have had sex). Some parents are worried about the vaccine’s safety; despite years of testing and millions of doses given, unfounded rumors abound about it being dangerous. Once parents get scared, it’s hard to un-scare them. Given that the vaccine isn’t required for school, they skip it entirely.

Vaccination is a medical treatment, and at first glance it seems odd to force parents to make their children undergo a medical treatment. But vaccination differs from most medical treatments because it affects others. If your child gets sick with a vaccine-preventable disease, they can spread it to other people.

It’s not just about you and your child. Vaccination never was. It’s about everyone around you—not just at school, but everywhere, for the rest of your life. This isn’t just about the high school students who could be exposed to HPV by having sex with unimmunized classmates; this is about preventing cancer throughout every child’s lifetime.

Because if you are going to put other people at risk, you should have a really great reason.

When we require vaccines for school, we get more children immunized. When we get more children immunized, we prevent diseases—including cancer. When we have a vaccine that works and is safe, we should make sure that we give it to as many people as possible, and requiring a vaccine for school does just that.

When we require vaccines—including HPV — for school, we not only give our children an education, but we also give them the best chance at a healthy future.

Let’s take a moment to consider some of the other vaccinations children must receive to attend school, Pertussis, (Whooping Cough) polio, measles. Now efficacy:

· Pertussis: The vaccine efficacy following the primary series with acellular pertussis vaccines is estimated to be about 85%, and approximately 90% following booster immunization.

· Polio: Inactivated poliomyelitis - containing vaccines (IPV) produce immunity in over 95% of vaccinees after 3 doses and in close to 100% following a booster dose.

· Measles: The efficacy of a single dose of measles vaccine given at 12 or 15 months of age is estimated to be 85% to 95%. With a second dose, efficacy is almost 100%.

How often are we hearing about an outbreak of these diseases listed in Ontario? It would be very rare if ever. And this is very good news! What vaccinations have brought to the table is almost a full wipe-out. Now let’s look at HPV, the optional shot given to both boys and girls in grade 7.

· HPV: All HPV vaccines have been found to have high efficacy (close to 100%) for prevention of HPV vaccine type-related persistent infection, cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) 2/3, and adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS).

Here is a vaccine that is optional, that has just as high of an efficacy as the other diseases listed above. Just as all diseases listed above can kill a person, cancer also holds equal potential.

Cervical cancer remains a common cancer affecting women in Canada. Each year, over 1,300 people in Canada are diagnosed with cervical cancer and over 400 die from this disease.

Nearly all cervical cancer cases are because of HPV infection, and the CCS-funded Canadian Population Attributable Risk of Cancer study has found that we could prevent about 5,300 cervical cancer cases by 2042 if more Canadian children were vaccinated against HPV.

While any gender can contract HPV, until 2017 vaccines were only offered through publicly funded school-based programs to girls in all provinces and territories, and to boys in only 6 provinces. Even though cancers caused by HPV have been affecting men, and we have known it to for some time. The Canadian Cancer Society has been advocating for the remaining 4 provinces and 3 territories to expand their programs to boys and successfully set the stage for all provinces and territories to adopt gender-neutral HPV vaccination programs.

Now, action must be taken to promote school-based HPV vaccination programs and to help change attitudes surrounding immunizations with the goal of increasing vaccination uptake.

We currently also use pap tests for cervical cancer screening, as a front-line defense, prevention for cervical cancer. With that said, for people within rural and cultural communities who experience barriers to accessing screening in-person, it will be crucial to develop screening programs that offer the HPV test. This test allows for the possibility of self-sampling, which makes it more accessible for more people. Because everyone does not have equal access.

So, what happens to the kids who have parents that look at this vaccine as ‘optional’? Kids will go without the protection that too many people in other parts of our country and the world only wish they could have. Best-case scenario, they get the education about this virus that they make the choice, when of age, to get this potentially life saving shot. But it will cost you. Free HPV vaccines are offered through school-based programs and catch-up programs in all provinces and territories in Canada. The adults who do not qualify for these programs can privately purchase the HPV vaccine series (three doses) for $510 to $630. And the money is not something every person has readily available during these times.

If those parents that make the choice to pass on this vaccine (when they are not allergic to the ingredients) found out that their child contracted cancer, the cancer that is preventable. Would they still believe they made the right choice?

Cancer comes in all colors of ribbons. And it doesn’t care who you are or what you believe in. My father lost his battle with colon cancer. He did not have an option for a vaccine to protect him against this kind. And if he did, you better bet your ass, he would’ve taken it. Myself? I am an older millennial, and it was something not yet offered to my generation, unfortunately. I am of the tiny minority who have been dealing with this disease off and on for the last 17 years. I was lucky enough to go into remission once again. I cannot say what the next couple has in store for me as far as the illness is concerned… I just know my mother would have signed me up for this program if it was an option for me. It is a journey I wish nobody else would ever have to take. ‘Cancer’ is a traumatic word. It’s one you never want to catch coming your way. If you make the choice to listen with ears purposely closed. Hear this at the very least. I encourage all parents to ask questions of their family doctor if you are having concerns. Education is the best tool in the fight against this stuff. We do not have to watch our kids battle it. It is a preventable disease to those of us that have access to doctors. We are the lucky ones who have access to the vaccines.

Cervical cancer is one no one ever wants to find themselves in the ring with. It is not kind to the poor. There are treatments that are not for free. There are treatments not covered under OHIP, that are not covered under other benefits. This is a road that doesn’t need to be travelled down if parents make the right choice for their children.

My meeting with someone from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is when questions will be asked. I’ll do my best for those that don’t have a voice.

I would like to see this cancer disappear in my lifetime; we have the power to make that happen. Please do not view this vaccine as ‘optional’ because protecting our children from it should never be viewed as such.