The National Minister of Health, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi's speech at the launch of the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine in Mangaung, Free State
Programme Director,
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Ramokgopa,
First Lady Tobeka Madiba Zuma, Patron and Founder of the Tobeka Madiba Foundation,
Who representative, Dr Barber,
The Premier of the Free State, Re Magashule,
The MEC of Education, Re Makgoe,
The MEC of Health, Dr Malakoane,
The Executive Mayor of Mangaung, Re Manyoni,
DG, DDG’s and senior managers from National Department,
HOD for Health,
HOD for Education.
The Member of the Minister’s Advisory Committee for Prevention and control of Cancer, Me Asante-Shongwe,
Chairperson of the SGB of Gonyane Primary School, Re Motaung and members of the SGB,
Chairpersons and Members of School Governing Bodies of schools in the district,
The Principal of Gonyane Primary School, Me Chabedi,
Representatives of SGB Unions,
SA Principals Association,
Teacher Unions and COSAS,
Senior officials from the Departments of Education and Health,
Parents of grade 4 girls and their parents,
Members of the Mangaung community.
A very good morning to you all!
We gather here today to witness a very important day in the history of health services in South Africa. Today we make history, as we officially launch our national vaccination campaign against cervical cancer, here in Mangaung.
Today marks the beginning of effective prevention against cancer of the cervix of the uterus.
In my Budget speech in May 2013, I announced that we will start a process to procure and implement in 2014 a new vaccination programme which prevents cancer of the cervix of the uterus.
Today, I am proud to announce that starting on Monday this week we have begun the national vaccination programme! South Africa is today one of the very few countries in the continent to provide this vaccine to all grade 4 girls in public schools. Certainly we are the first in the continent to target so many girls, close to 500 000, with funding from our
government.
This shows the commitment of this government to prevent cervical cancer and to ensure a long and healthy life of women in this country.
Ladies and gentlemen, cancer of the cervix of the uterus is a serious disease that affects women all over the world. Women in all countries are at risk of getting cancer of the cervix of the uterus, however, it is women in developing countries who bear the heaviest burden and who suffer the most from the disease.
The severity, the complications, the human suffering, the loss of lives, all this is worse in developing and poor resourced settings with limited access to early screening, treatment, and management of complications.
As I said in my Budget speech last year, and I quote: “According to Prof Lynette Deny, and Dr Yasmin Adam of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Groote Schuur Hospital and Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital respectively, cervical cancer affect 6 000 South African women annually. 80% of them are African women. Out of these 6 000 affected, between 3 000 and 3 500 die annually as a result of this cancer.
More than 50% of women affected are between 35 and 55 years of age. Only 20% are older than 65 years of age. HIV positive women are five times more likely to get it than HIV negative women”.
Ladies and gentlemen: it is our mothers, our aunts, our sisters and our daughters who suffer the most from the burden of this disease. You have heard from a survivor of this disease, Me Asante-Shongwe what this disease does.
Unfortunately, we cannot hear from those that pass on from this disease but their families can tell us how devastating this disease is. So why the Human Papillomavirus and the HPV vaccine, and what is the relationship between the two? It has been well established that persistent infection with human papilloma virus causes cancer of the cervix of the uterus and transmitted through sexual activity – and we know that virtually all sexually active people will at one time in their life be exposed to HPV.
It can take up to 20 years or more following HPV infection for a woman to develop cancer of the cervix of the uterus. Therefore it is best to prevent this disease by preventing HPV infection early, about 20 years or so earlier, which starts today for all grade 4 girls at this school and girls throughout the country.
The World Health Organisation has produced guidelines for eligibility for HPV vaccine. The WHO suggests that girls between the ages of 9 and 13 would benefit from this vaccine. The aim is to give protection to girls long before they are exposed to HPV infection. We decided to start with girls in grade 4 because they are typically at age 9 when they enter grade 4. We also chose this age because we know that these girls are least likely to have started sexual activity.
Unfortunately, from our HIV antenatal surveys we know that there girls as young as 10 years of age are falling pregnant in our country. This is unfortunate and I will return to this issue of teenage pregnancy later.
What we are doing here is to protect girls now, we are vaccinating grade 4 girls today, to protect them cancer of the cervix in 20 years’ time! To the grade 4 girls of Gonyane Primary School who we vaccinated today I want to say that I am so proud of you for being so strong and brave. We thank you and your parents for allowing us to vaccinate you today.
This vaccination is an investment not only in your health but that of future generation of women from contracting cancer of the cervix. Your names will go down in history as being the first group of girls to be vaccinated in our long road to a society free from cervical cancer.
The HPV vaccination campaign is part of the health sector’s contribution to the achievement of the objectives of the National Development Plan.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to assure you that our health policies are based on the best possible evidence. We have the guidance of the World Health Organisation which I referred to previously as well as our own experts. I have a committee of experts on vaccines called the National Advisory Group on Immunisation (NAGI).
This committee, represented today by Prof Helen Rees (unfortunately the chair of the Committee, Prof Greg Hussey is not able to be here today but has nominated Prof Rees to represent the committee), provided the Department of Health with expert advice on the basis of which we selected the vaccine that we are using.
Thus, I can assure you that the bivalent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine we are using to protect against CACX is safe. The HPV Vaccine has been used in over 130 countries and over 170 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed worldwide.
The Minister and Deputy Minister of Basic Education kindly hosted a national meeting of Associations of School Governing Bodies, School Principals and Teacher Unions at which I presented the rationale for the HPV vaccine as well as how we will run the campaign. I can say without fear of contradiction that the leadership of the organisations present at this meeting unanimously agreed to the introduction of the HPV vaccine as part of the Integrated School Health programme.
I will return to the issue of the Integrated School Health progamme later. We as the Departments of Health and Education are doing our part. We have worked on ensuring that systems are ready for the national rollout of the HPV Vaccine. This is no small undertaking and we urge all of us to be a united nation in protecting women from cancer of the cervix of the uterus.
The whole world will have its eye on us, and we are certain that with your contribution we will make this Cancer Prevention Vaccination Programme a success. We have over 17 000 schools with close to 500 000 Grade 4 girl learners that we are targeting. We have over the last 8 months put up systems and conducted activities in preparation of this implementation.
We have trained over 3 000 health professionals in all provinces and all sub-districts, vaccines which include 10% safety stock have been delivered to all provinces and all districts. Posters, guides for educators, invitation letters signed by myself and the Minister of Basic Education, and related documents have been sent out to all primary schools.
We are thus confident that with the cooperation of all parties involved we will make this immunisation programme a success. We aim to reach all targeted girls through the 2 rounds of the campaign in March to April and again in September to October and each year henceforth.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is our collective responsibility to encourage the use of this vaccine and prevent women of South Africa from getting cancer of the cervix. We have a duty, either as ordinary citizens, parents, health professionals, educators, religious leaders, political leaders, priests, members of school governing bodies, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters to ensure the protection of girls from cancer.
This can be done by talking positively about HPV, explaining to concerned parents and others about the use of this vaccine and the benefit it will confer to these girls and society. Equally, and I said I will return to this subject, we must as a society ensure that we reverse the trend of teenage pregnancies. I am also addressing myself to the grade 4 girls and boys in the audience.
There is plenty of time for you to engage in sex. Young girls and boys are not prepared, biologically, emotionally, economically or socially to be parents. Please delay in engaging in sexual activities until you are much older and if you can’t for whatever reason, please make sure use you protect yourselves from falling pregnant by using a contraceptive. If you do not know about how to protect yourself speak to the clinic nurse or your parents.
Two weeks ago, in Tembisa in Gauteng I launched together with the Minister of Social Development, and the Deputy Minister of Economic Development a national family planning campaign. At the same event I introduced a new contraceptive, the sub-dermal implant. This is a 3 year long acting contraceptive – thus reducing the need to remember to take contraceptive pills daily or visit the clinic often.
However, with this new method you still need to use a condom. This is dual protection: protection from un-intended pregnancy and from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Given that we have parents and young learners in the audience let me also remind you of the importance of hand washing.
Many diseases are passed on by unwashed hands. Please remember to wash hands, preferably with soap after visiting the toilet and especially before preparing meals and before eating. This will prevent many cases of diarrhoea and deaths from diarrhoea – especially of children under the age of 5 years.
To assist prevent diarrhoea and pneumonia – another main cause of children under the age of 5 years dying in our country – we introduced two vaccines in 2009 to prevent these diseases but we still need to ensure that we drink clean water and wash our hands to prevent diarrhoea that is caused by bacteria.
The two vaccines (rotavirus vaccine and pneumococcus vaccine) prevent the diseases caused by viruses. I am not asking children and parents to remember of these medical terms – just know that the Department of Health provides vaccinations that can prevent a number of diseases so please ask the nurse at the clinic for advice and take your children with the road to health card each child receives to the clinic to be vaccinated.
Parents and learners, in October 2012, President Zuma launched the Integrated School Health Programme to bring health services to schools, starting with quintile 1 and 2 schools and targeting grades 1,4 and 8-10. We will also move to provide these services to quintile 3-5 schools after we have covered all the quintile 1 and 2 schools – these are schools in the poorest areas of the country and therefore in greatest need of services.
The Integrated School Health Programme is a joint Department of Education and Department of Health programme and offers, through school health nurses health screening (eyes, ears, teeth) as well as age appropriate sex education. So for grade 4 – we focus on ‘knowing your body’. This HPV vaccination campaign is part of the Integrated School Health Programme.
Programme director, in conclusion, I would like to express our gratitude to all agencies and partners for the invaluable support provided to make this HPV Vaccination Programme a reality. Equally importantly, I wish to thank the parents, the grade 4 learners, educators, and school governing bodies for your support for the HPV vaccine campaign as well as the other components of the Integrated School Health Programme.
I thank you!
