National Network for Children prepared and submitted a memorandum to the Ministry of Health. The organization’s request is for a national strategy for the elimination of human papillomavirus.
The memorandum was created as a result of the National Information Campaign for Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Prevention. The slogan of the campaign is “Parents, give our children a chance to become parents!”, and its main goal is to raise awareness of the HPV-caused diseases.
A number of meetings were held with the participation of numerous stakeholders from the healthcare industry, experts and parents. Different specialists discussed the prevention and consequences of human papillomavirus infection. European– and world–renowned experts, representatives of the Ministry of Health and non-governmental organizations took part in the webinars. They presented their theses and had a constructive conversation on possible future steps towards eliminating HPV-caused diseases.
Having in mind the meetings held and the conclusions reached, the National Network for Children prepared and submitted an official document, requesting specific actions by the Ministry of Health in order to deal with the virus and its consequences. The network’s requests are as follows:
- The National Immunization Program for Prevention of Cervical Cancer for Girls and Boys 10-14 years of age, but also the prevention of Bulgarian citizens from diseases caused by human papilloma virus to become part of the National Cancer Plan of Bulgaria;
- Inclusion in the mandatory national vaccination calendar of free and gender-neutral HPV vaccination.
- Expanding the target group of those eligible for immunization in the program to include additional group of girls, as well as the possibility to cover boys between 10 and 14 years of age, in order to ensure equality of vaccination.
- Providing free screening programs with a focus on the more mature Bulgarian population.
- Regularly providing accessible and reliable information, based on HPV screening and vaccination coverage, as well as an easy access to vaccination.
- Using the infrastructure, created by vaccination centers in connection to the Covid-19 vaccination, for direct access of parents to information and possible vaccination to help achieve a high percentage of vaccination coverage.
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