It Takes Three (HPV)

Date: 25 March 2009

It Takes Three (HPV)

They’ve talked about their options, made the decision with their families, and had their consent forms signed. So, this week, Raumati Manaena-Awa (Chanel College), Dione Pourau (Masterton Intermediate School) and Hannah Lodge-Schnellenberg (Solway College) will join thousands of other Year 8 pupils around the country who are receiving their first free vaccination against HPV (Human Papillomavirus).

The series of three vaccinations will help protect them against the most common causes of cervical cancer, and while the threat of developing cervical cancer seems far in the future for these 12-year-olds, each of them are confident that their decision is the right one and that the long-term benefits will outweigh any possible short-term discomfort such as a sore arm.

“Getting immunised now just means that it’s one less thing to worry about when we’re older,” says Hannah Lodge-Schnellenberg. “It’s not really something we think about much at the moment, but nobody wants cancer, and when we’re adults it’ll be good to know that we’ve got some protection against cervical cancer.”

“It can save your life,” says Dione Pourau. “One reason I wanted to get it (the series of vaccinations) is because cancer runs in my family and that worries me. My first feeling when I heard about the vaccination was ‘I want that.’ I feel like I need to worry about it now, because later in life I’d like to have babies and that and I don’t want to be worrying about it then.”

As a junior member of the Wairarapa Branch of Maori Women’s Welfare League, Dione helped distribute pamphlets about the vaccine to local homes. From reading the information and talking to her mother and grandmother who are also League members, Dione felt that she had all the information and support she needed to make an informed decision. Raumati also talked to her mother about it after a school visit by the public health nurse “Mum asked me some questions about what we’d been told at school but I didn’t always have all the answers.” To get those answers her mother went along to an information session run by the Wairarapa Branch Maori Women’s Welfare League at Te Hauora.

Hannah says she was mostly happy to leave the decision to be vaccinated to her mother, who works in the health field “and knows about these sorts of things. We talked about it in the car and she told me about why she thought it was important. But I think it’s important too and so do most of my friends – nearly all of them are getting vaccinated.”

“It’s kind of like the vaccinations you get when you’re little. You probably don’t like it much at the time, but if you didn’t get it you could get the disease later and then you’d wish you’d just got the vaccination before.”

Ends

© Scoop Media