N.B. plays catch up with HPV vaccines

The province is going to play catch-up with a school HPV vaccination program that was partially sidelined last year by the H1N1 scare.

The vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) prevents certain strains of that virus that can cause cervical cancer.

But only half the 12-year-old school girls scheduled to get the vaccine actually received it this past school year.

That's because the province's resources were drained away by mass effort to vaccinate most of the province against the H1N1 virus.

The H1N1 scare "meant that we had to try and identify where we had to train staff to deliver the mass clinics across the province," said New Brunswick's deputy chief medical officer of health, Paul Van Buynder.

" One of the things we could safely delay was the human papilloma vaccine for 12-year-old girls," he said.

This fall, the province will target both 12- and 13-year-old girls to catch up.

Are boys next?

There may in the future an even bigger expansion of the program. Two versions of the vaccine show promise in preventing cancer in boys as well said Van Buynder.

"Over the next 12 months, we'll be looking at both vaccines and the data and it may well be that in the future, we offer this to both boys and girls," said Van Bynder.

The new round begins in the fall when consent forms will be sent to parents.

The HPV vaccine program currently costs about $1 million a year.