Following a recent change in the criteria, the Ministry of Health has announced that the Human Papilloma-virus (HPV) vaccine can now be administered to women up to 45 years of age.
“Previously we were only offering these vaccines for persons, both male and female, nine to 15 years of age. But the new guidelines published by all the reputable organisations dealing with cervical cancer would have advised that we could go beyond 15 years of age. And, that is why we have now updated our schedule to include persons beyond 15 years of age, who can access the vaccines. Previously a woman who was 26 years of age could not have had access to these vaccines,” Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony said in a recent interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI).