Speaking with newsmen ahead of the HPV vaccination exercise, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, urged parents to disregard the rumour that the vaccine would make their daughters infertile. According to her, the vaccine is mainly to protect them against cervical cancer, which she said is currently the only cancer that could be prevented with a vaccine. Coker disclosed that the HPV vaccine is targeted at girls between the ages of nine and 14.
This is the vaccination against Human Papillomavirus, which is the cause of cervical cancer in 95 percent of cases. “Cervical cancer is the only cancer that has a vaccine against it. It will be a travesty if, perhaps, any of our daughters in 50 to 60 years' time end up with cervical cancer because we, the parents, have chosen for them to have this cancer. “My appeal to parents is to allow their daughters to take the vaccine. I am a parent myself.