Vaccination HPVthe virus that causes cervical cancer in women, is recommended to be done at the age of 14 years and over.
However, the HPV vaccine can be given from childhood to adulthood. Obstetrics and gynecology specialist Boy Abidin said the HPV vaccine could be given to people under the age of 45 years.
Boy also explained that ideally the vaccine should be given to women who are not yet sexually active. Because, if you have had sex, the risk of exposure to HPV is higher.
“This virus can come and stay in the vagina, transfer to the uterus through sexual intercourse. Therefore, the target of the vaccination is for elementary school-aged children who have never [berhubungan] sex,” he said.
But does that mean women who are already sexually active don’t need to get the HPV vaccine or cervical cancer vaccine?
Doctor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Grace Valentine revealed, there are two conditions for women who are sexually active can be injected with the HPV vaccine.
“The condition for the cervical cancer vaccine is that the woman has not been infected with HPV because the goal is not to get her infected with HPV,” he said as quoted by Antara.
Grace reminded, even though women will have received complete vaccinations, they are still advised to have regular Pap smears.
This is because the vaccines currently available are only for the two most common viral types, namely types 16 and 18 (the main causes of cervical cancer cases) and low-risk HPV types, namely 6 and 11 as the cause of genital warts in women and men.
Meanwhile, there are still several other oncogenic HPV types for which no vaccine has been found, so that regular Pap smears are expected to be an early detection of pre-cancerous cells if a woman is infected with another HPV.
This vaccine can be given from girls to women aged 10-45 years who have not been sexually active. The dose in those aged 10-13 years is twice, namely at month 0 and month 6. Meanwhile, for women aged 13 years and over, it is recommended to give three doses, namely the 0th month, 1st or 2nd month and 6th month.
“Vaccination for women who are not sexually active can be done immediately. Only one series of vaccines is needed, no further boosters are needed at this time,” said Grace.
(chs)
–
