Independent & Free Press, Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Catholic trustees
flip on HPV issue
Continued from pg. 1
The trustees’ mixed feelings on the issue resurfaced during a brief discussion held before the vote last Tuesday.
Oakville Trustee Alice Anne LeMay said the issue is
about providing space for the health department, not
administering the vaccine.
“We are not offering this vaccine. We are offering space
in a publicly-funded building for a program that is also publicly funded,” she said. “I don’t think it is up to a board of
trustees to say to say who can and cannot have the vaccination.”
But these comments were met with resistance by trustees
like Bob Van de Vrande, who said there is something suggestive about administering a shot for a sexually-transmitted
disease.
“I think the argument against the motion could be equivalent to making two square feet available in the bathrooms
of the schools to hang condom vending machines,” said the
Burlington trustee. “What is the difference between that and
what is being performed?”
Other trustees, however, were worried about the public’s
reaction to the back-and-forth decisions of the board.
“The concern I have is second-guessing decisions that we
have made isn’t in our best interest,” said Milton Trustee
Reverend David Wilhelm.
Dr. Bob Nosal, Halton Region’s medical officer of health,
said he was disappointed with the board’s decision.
“Obviously, I would have preferred that motion not to
have passed as we have been able to use the schools at both
the public and Catholic school board for the past year for
the HPV vaccine,” he said.
Nosal said the program was working well in the schools,
adding that it will now likely be more of an inconvenience
for the parents and students involved.
“When it is at the school, the girls are already there, we
take them out of the classroom and the parents simply have
to sign the consent form and it all works very well,” he said.
“What will happen now is that parents will have to take
time off work or get off work early and take their kids to a
clinic if they choose to immunize them.”
The HPV vaccination program was successful in its first
year, according to Nosal, who said the final participation
rate of Grade 8 girls in Halton’s Catholic schools was 40 per
cent and growing. The participation rate in public schools
was 53 per cent.
The HPV vaccination program’s participation rate for all
Grade 8 girls in Halton Region was 48 per cent.
Currently, the HPV vaccination program is only available
through the department of health’s clinics, which means
family physicians cannot administer the publicly-funded
shots.
Nosal said that the health department would work on
finding solutions to the obstacles created by the Catholic
board’s decision, with one option being an increase in community immunization clinics.
The Halton District School Board, meanwhile, provided
space at its facilities in the 2007-08 school year for the
health department to administer the HPV vaccination program. It will continue to do so again in the fall, according to
Marnie Denton, manager of communications with the public board.
11
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