Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank her for dealing with this matter on the Commencement. Like the previous matter, it concerns the treatment of cancer. I ask the Minister for Health, in light of the concerns expressed by the Irish Cancer Society and others, about falling rates of take-up of the human papilloma virus, HPV, by parents of teenage girls. This is the vaccine that protects against cervical cancer.In light of these concerns and the decreasing take-up rates, from a rate of 87% in 2014 to a projected rate of below 50% this year, how does the Minister propose to increase take-up rates to help prevent the incidence of cervical cancer in the future? Does the Minister propose to launch a public awareness campaign to inform parents of the proven safety and efficacy of the vaccination programme? What plans does he have to extend the roll-out of the HPV vaccination programme to boys?

In recent days I met representatives of the Irish Cancer Society, who have also been engaged in briefing Members of the Oireachtas generally. They are deeply concerned about reports that appear to be putting people off vaccinating their children. The HPV vaccine is now being administered in Ireland to all first-year girls in secondary school. It has been offered for free to first-year girls since 2010 under the national HPV vaccination programme. Gardasil 4 is used in the programme and this protects against strains of HPV which cause seven out of ten cases of cervical cancer. It also protects against strains which cause the majority of genital warts. It is a very important health programme.

Concerns have been raised that there is a link between this vaccine and fatigue in teenage girls, particularly chronic fatigue syndrome. Clearly, any girl who suffers from such a condition should be offered clinical care pathways and treatment but that is a separate issue. We now have clear scientific evidence which refutes or denies any link between the vaccination programme and the incidence of chronic fatigue. Indeed, in December last year the World Health Organization global advisory committee for vaccine safety reviewed the evidence on the safety of Gardasil and concluded that it continues to have an excellent safety profile. In the month before that, November 2015, the European Medicines Agency similarly reported on a review of HPV vaccines and found no evidence the vaccine was linked to chronic fatigue conditions. Despite this strong scientific evidence and the clear need for this vaccination, the rates are falling even though we know that this year in Ireland, more than 90 women will die from cervical cancer. Many of us have friends or family who have been affected by this. A total of 280 women will be diagnosed with invasive cancer and a further 6,500 will need hospital treatment to deal with pre-malignant forms of the disease to prevent later development of cervical cancer. These are the conservative estimates put forward by the Irish Cancer Society. They should be a matter of huge concern.

The society says that if vaccination rates continue to fall, 40 unvaccinated girls from the cohort that should have received the vaccine this year will die in future years if one projects the estimates into the future. It is seriously worrying. We see scare campaigns being carried out in other countries, with the result that vaccination rates have fallen. In Japan the vaccination rate is below 1%. It is clear that further falls will happen in Ireland unless there is a strong, concerted, cross-party campaign by public representatives, the Government and the HSE to ensure information is provided to the public and the scientific evidence is presented to parents, so they will see the need for the vaccination programme.

To conclude with a positive story, Australia has conducted a robust information programme and it has high levels of vaccination. It has effectively achieved the elimination of genital warts, one of the conditions which the vaccine prevents. A vaccination programme for boys in Australia is also ongoing. We can learn lessons from countries where there is good practice. However, we need a strong intervention by the Minister and public representatives before the next vaccinations take place in schools to ensure that take-up rates do not continue to fall.