Cervical cancer is wreaking havoc in Romania, although at present there is a vaccine against the virus responsible for the occurrence of this disease.
The statistics are appalling and should make the authorities think: once every two hours a Romanian woman is diagnosed with cervical cancer, and the most affected by this terrible disease are women aged between 15 and 44 years. Specifically, cervical cancer is a public health problem in Romania.
That is why seven non-governmental organizations with a role in protecting the rights of patients, parents, women and representatives of future medical professionals sent a joint letter to the Romanian Government, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Public Finance.
With this, they draw attention to the fact that Romania is still the only country in the European Union that does not allocate funds for HPV vaccination of girls and demand the correction of this situation on the occasion of the first budget rectification announced for August.
In the last ten years since the introduction of the HPV vaccine internationally, there has been remarkable progress in protecting girls from HPV infection.
According to those organizations, HPV vaccination is already being implemented in 120 states. Recently, Australia, the country that implemented an HPV vaccination program for girls aged 12 to 13 in 2007, expanded its program to boys in 2013. As a result, Australian authorities have announced that it could become the first country in the world to eradicate cervical cancer.
In Romania, vaccination against diseases caused by the HPV virus is found in the National Immunization Program, in the category “vaccination of population groups at risk”. Since last year, the Ministry of Health has started collecting express requests addressed by parents, family doctors. “For more than a year, parents who have submitted vaccination requests for their little girls have not received any response as to when they will be vaccinated,” the letter sent by the seven NGOs reads.
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