Offering men the same protection against cancer-causing HPV as women is a matter of justice, the Irish Cancer Society says.

Vaccinations against a virus that can cause cervical cancer fell by half last year in Ireland amid scares over side-effects.

Minister for Health, Simon Harris, has said that HPV vaccine scaremongers should leave medical advice to the medical professionals.

The reduction in uptake of the cervical cancer vaccine may influence a reduction in uptake of other childhood vaccines, a HSE health chief warns.

With 90 women dying here each year of cervical cancer, a leading health body has said parents can help to save their daughters’ lives by allowing them to be vaccinated against the HPV virus.

Only half of the teenage girls entitled to receive a vaccine that prevents cervical cancer started getting the jab last year.

The mother of a teenage girl left severely disabled by meningitis is pleading with the Government to introduce the meningitis B vaccine as part of the childhood immunisation programme.

The number of children struck by a debilitating virus has risen fivefold since the start of 2015 — two years after Department of Health advisors recommended vaccinating against it.

Boys may be included in the schools vaccination programme against the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, it emerged yesterday.

Parents of children who have died of meningitis have called for a new vaccine for the B strain of the disease to be introduced here without delay.

Medical experts want a vaccine for rotavirus, the commonest cause of severe diarrhoea in young children, to be included in the State’s primary childhood immunisation programme.

New guidelines on the immunisation of children are being launched today.

Fears have arisen that the number of cases of potentially fatal meningococcal diseases will have increased considerably by the year end.

The Government is being urged to include the only licensed vaccine against a deadly type of meningitis in the childhood immunisation schedule as soon as possible.

Pregnant women will be unable to receive the whooping cough vaccine from their GPs after medics insisted it is not their job to administer the jab.

A lifesaving vaccine against the deadliest form of meningitis has been approved by EU scientists but it will take at least a year before it is available in Ireland, the country which has the highest rate of the disease in Europe.

Pregnant women and secondary school students are being targeted as part of a public health campaign to boost protection against whooping cough.

More than 200 children and teens have been unknowingly put at risk of serious illnesses like measles, meningitis and Hepatitis B after receiving inadequate vaccines.

There has been a sharp rise this year in whooping cough — a disease that can be fatal in young children.

THERE is evidence flu-like illnesses may have “plateaued” after reaching an all-time high earlier this month.

A woman hospitalised with the swine flu virus has died, health chiefs confirmed tonight.

Pregnant women were today urged to protect themselves and their unborn child by getting vaccinated against swine flu.

The Health Information and Quality Authority has come out in support of giving a vaccine against cervical cancer to young girls in secondary schools.

TEACHERS are no longer required to be vaccinated against tuberculosis (TB), following the advice of the chief medical officer for the public service.

IRISH children will have to wait until next year before they are entitled to a lifesaving vaccine manufactured in the State.

IRISH children are not entitled to a life-saving vaccine manufactured in the State.

The joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children has called for the introduction of a new vaccine programme to ensure that girls between the ages of 11 and 12 are protected against cervical cancer before they become sexually active.