Parents refuse to vaccinate their daughters against uterine cancer

Parents of female students in Al Ain schools rejected the school health decision to vaccinate grade 12 female students with a new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, and considered this vaccination to be an insult to their daughters, pointing out that cervical cancer results from sexual relations, wondering how it is transmitted to female students?

For his part, the pediatric consultant and head of the pediatric department at Al Ain Hospital, director of school health, Dr. Salem Abdullah bin Othman, confirmed that this vaccine is a protection for girls, and not, as some believe, an abuse of them, stressing that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has advised the use of the Gardasil vaccine for girls and women. In the age group of 9-26 years before marriage.

Maryam Awad, the guardian of one of the students, said that this disease is only transmitted through sexual relations, pointing out that this vaccination is new and has not been tested before, considering that the Health Ministry’s giving girls this vaccine is an insult to the students.

Inappropriate behaviour

She explained that this disease results from illicit relationships, and vaccinating female students with this vaccine is an inappropriate act of school health, noting that the West uses this vaccine because girls are not committed and get involved in illicit relationships at an early age, and this is not possible in the country.

Muhammad Sameh, a guardian of female students, saw that this vaccination carries something strange, and contains a hidden message about motivating girls to have illegal relationships. He rejected the justification of school health that there is a possibility of infection after marriage, wondering whether school health will follow up on female students after marriage? The student, W.M.H, told Emirates Al-Youm, “My father is an old man, and he did not understand the issue of vaccination, and when he heard the word cancer, he completely refused vaccination, pointing out that this word is frightening for an old man, and it is difficult to change his beliefs.” So I made my older brother sign the papers distributed by the school to obtain parental consent for vaccination.

School health
For his part, the pediatric consultant, head of the pediatric department at Al Ain Hospital, and director of school health, said that talk about this vaccine began last year, and studies have shown that the human papilloma virus causes 99% of cervical cancer cases, in addition to other cancers and diseases, and there are Cases recorded in the Emirates, noting that it is a new disease in the world.

Wrong idea

Bin Othman added that this vaccine is a protection for girls, and not, as some parents imagine, that it is an abuse of the girl, and that it gives the wrong idea that the girl has had an illicit relationship. This disease is transmitted through sexual relations, and this does not mean that they are illicit, and the infected man may transmit it. The disease is transmitted to his wife, and many men carry the virus without having symptoms, so this vaccine protects the girl until after marriage. The possibility of a man contracting the disease is possible, but it is at a much lower rate than a woman. This vaccine is a protection for people who may be victims of unwise practices by some husbands.

He pointed out that there are more than 100 types of human papillomavirus, and some types cause benign skin boils, or papillae, and hence the virus was given the name papillary because it lives only in the body’s squamous epithelial cells that are found on the surface of the skin, cervix, vagina, anus, and genital organs. In addition to the mouth and throat.

Bin Othman explained that some types of viruses are transmitted through skin contact, and others of about 40 types are transmitted reproductively, and some of these types may cause cells to transform into the pre-cancerous stage and cervical cancer, in addition to reproductive cancers, while other types cause abnormal changes. In cervical cells, genital warts and changes in the cervix.

He added that this vaccine is 95% effective against human papillomavirus type “18,16,11,6.” The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the Gardasil vaccine for girls and women in the age group of 9-26 years, and advised taking the vaccine. before marriage, noting that “there are three doses of the vaccine, the first in March, the second in April, and the third in October, and we encourage people to take this vaccine because they must prevent the disease,” stressing This disease is difficult to treat.

Ben Othman stated, “The steps we took in schools are that we made every school nurse explain the disease and the vaccine to the students, and we asked to obtain the approval of the parents after reading the flyers that we distributed to introduce the vaccine and the disease.” He stressed that this vaccine is expensive in its three doses, and its price is not less than 1,000 dirhams, and we give it to female students at a very nominal price, which is 50 dirhams, which includes the three doses.

Fear of illness

The psychologist in the Al Ain Educational District, Ahlam Al-Shatri, believes that some parents’ refusal of this vaccination is primarily due to fear of the disease itself, which is cancer, and this is what made them refrain from anything related to the disease, even if it is to protect against it, asking the responsible authorities to conduct campaigns. To educate families about all the details of the disease and remove the barrier of fear, explaining that the flyers that were distributed answer the families’ questions, and others are thinking that if their daughter takes the vaccine, she will either be infected with the disease, or there is a possibility. To hurt her.

Al-Shatri pointed out that if we replace cancer vaccination with protection from another disease such as hepatitis; The parents are the ones who will take their daughters for vaccination, as it is the fear of the disease itself, especially since they know that a cancer patient is destined to die, so they avoid anything related to the disease, and there is a large percentage of the uneducated who are not aware of such diseases.

Al-Shatri believes that fear led to a state of hysteria among people because they did not know the main source of cancer, giving the example of a student who came back after sports class feeling cramps in her stomach and it turned out to be uterine cancer, but the family linked the disease to exercise, and they did not know that cancer cells had People carry it for more than a year, and then symptoms appear.