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Emily Hung

Hong Kong will offer free human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccinations to female residents aged between 16 and 20 to protect them against cervical cancer in a one-off initiative.
Authorities said on Wednesday the two-year scheme aimed to cover the 190,000 people born between 2004 and 2008 who were left out when the government started vaccinating all girls in Primary Five and Primary Six in 2019.
The first phase will begin next month.
The World Health Organization has recommended all countries provide the vaccines for HPV, which causes cervical cancer, for girls aged 9 to 14 before they become sexually active, as well as for older ones.
Cervical cancer is the seventh most common cancer among Hong Kong women, accounting for 3.1 per cent of new cases and leading to 2.8 per cent of cancer deaths in 2021.
Dr Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, controller of the Centre for Health Protection, said the move was a “mop-up” to further reduce the risk of women developing cervical cancer.
“HPV vaccination is an effective public health strategy to prevent cervical cancer,” he said
“The Department of Health will arrange a one-off free catch-up HPV vaccination to all residents who were aged below 18 in 2022 and not covered by the childhood immunization programme, covering those born between 2004 and 2008.”
He said the vaccine would still be helpful for sexually active young women, though their protection would be weaker than those who took the jab earlier.
Under the one-off scheme, two doses of a HPV vaccine will be provided to eligible residents, with the second administered five to 13 months after the first.
Those who are immunocompromised will be entitled to three doses, with the second taken two months later and the third taken after six months.
Residents must sign up to eHealth, the city’s official electronic health record-sharing system, to be eligible for the scheme.
Tsui said the initiative was the first to list such sign-ups as a prerequisite and he expected the practice to continue.

He said more than 80 per cent of residents had registered an account on the system, which was designed to help streamline health management and the provision of services.
Tsui said authorities would follow up individually with those deterred by the requirement to try to persuade them.
He added the inoculation rate under the scheme might be lower than that of the regular HPV vaccination programme rolled out in 2019, which was as high as 90 per cent, because some might have arranged to receive doses on their own in the private market.
Dr Albert Au Ka-wing, head of the emergency response and programme management branch of the Centre for Health Protection, said the vaccination scheme would be conducted in three phases.
The first phase, scheduled to kick off on December 2, will cover the 55,000 girls in Form Five and Form Six, with outreach teams dispatched to inoculate students on-site.
The second phase will start in the first quarter of 2025, covering 65,000 eligible female students in tertiary education. The jabs may be offered by school clinics or outreach teams.
The third phase will start in the first half of next year to cover the rest, such as secondary school graduates and those studying overseas, which amounted to 70,000 people. They may take the jabs in private clinics or district health centres, with more details to be announced later.
Each private doctor taking part in the scheme would receive a HK$105 subsidy per dose.
He said those who missed the vaccinations in primary school could always get their jabs during regular student health assessments. They will not be covered in this special scheme.
Au noted the government had procured more than 200,000 doses of HPV vaccines for the first and second phases.
Authorities would also maintain close communication with the pharmaceutical company providing the vaccine to ensure supply was sufficient and the private market would not be affected.
Tsui said the government currently had no plan to vaccinate boys against HPV because the cost-effectiveness was lower as more than 80 per cent of girls had already been inoculated. But authorities would continue to monitor the situation.


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News

Hong Kong

Health & Environment

Two-year scheme aims to provide catch-up jabs for 190,000 people born between 2004 and 2008 who were left out of main vaccination round


Two-year scheme aims to provide catch-up jabs for 190,000 people born between 2004 and 2008 who were left out of main vaccination round.


Hong Kong society

Cancer

World Health Organization (WHO)