WHO fear over fall in HPV take up

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has joined the chorus of concern at the steep decline in uptake rates in Ireland for the HPV vaccine, which helps protect against cervical cancer.

Robb Butler, head of vaccine preventable diseases and immunisation at WHO/Europe, said the decline is “particularly alarming given Ireland boasted the world’s most successful HPV vaccination programmes globally just a few years ago”.

Mr Butler, who was addressing the HSE national HPV conference in Dublin yesterday, said the WHO stood “with the many health bodies and agencies in Ireland in their ongoing efforts to see this worrisome trend reversed and the campaign of misinformation ceased”.