Parents in Juja Sub-county have been advised to take their 10 year old daughters for HPV vaccine during the ongoing cervical cancer awareness at Gachororo health centre.
The calls comes after the county recorded low turnout since the cancer awareness exercise kick off on 28th October and was expected to conclude by the end of next week.
However it emerged that the no show up was attributed to poor sensitization as most parents interviewed confirmed that they were not informed of the importance of HPV vaccines being administered countrywide, targeting about 800,000 girls.
Speaking to KNA Wednesday, Dr. Mark Owour who is currently deployed at the centre from the Thika Level 5 hospital said residents seem to have taken the vital exercise for granted.
Dr. Owour noted that the HPV vaccine being offered, which is supposed to be administered in two doses after every six months was absolutely free of charge, therefore people should not shy from the health centre.
He advised parents to take their young girls to the health centre, where they would be educated on various topics related to cancer and how to take precautionary health tips.
However, parents interviewed by KNA had their own reservations the exercise. According to Shelly Wanjala, the initiative by the government was crucial in fighting cancer, noting that prevention is better than cure.
But for Lucy Njeri, a single mother, the long term effects of HPV vaccine remains unknown, thus she would hesitate to put her daughter’s life in danger, as still there was a lot of information not yet given to the people as required.
“I don’t want my daughter to blame me if things go astray, like in the previous polio vaccines that had side effects on some children,” she said.
By Lydia Shiloya and Alba Nakuwa
