Since last year, the vaccination schedule of Castilla y León includes the possibility that Children get vaccinated against human papillomavirusan injection that until then only girls received. The result of this first campaign was that 86 percent of the twelve-year-old male minors called for vaccination received the vaccine, while among girls the figure was 87.1 percent, according to data provided by the Council.
Furthermore, during the Government Council held last Thursday, the Regional Executive gave the green light to an expenditure for an amount of 2,599,740 euros intended for the purchase of this vaccine, indicated in the official calendar of Castilla y León since last year also for children. The Community has thus followed the path started by regions such as Catalonia and Murcia and has overtaken the Government, which has decided that this protection against HPV should also be established for minors before the end of 2024.
The vaccination program involves administering two doses at least six months apart against a virus that causes infections of the skin and mucous membranes in various areas of the body, the regional executive said. “Most infections do not cause any symptoms and disappear on their own,” the same sources said, however, “some can cause cervical cancer in women and others, less common, can affect both men and women.” Hence the pressure for vaccination also in men, since the HPV can also cause anal, oropharyngeal and penile cancer in women, but it also reduces the development of the disease in girls. by about 30 percent.
HPV is “the most common cause of sexually transmitted infections” “There are more than a hundred strains of this virus,” the Council said, and its rate is higher among the young population, especially between the ages of onset of sexual relations, between 15 and 25 years. The official vaccination and immunization calendar of Castilla y León provides for vaccination with a vaccine containing nine genotypes of this virus, including 35 and 52, which in Castilla y León are four times more frequent than the 18 contained in the bivalent and tetravalent vaccines. During the year 2024, minors born in 2012, that is, those who are in sixth grade, were called.
