Starfruit (malangkota.go.id) – The Malang City Health Office (Dinkes) is committed and actively conducting socialization of cervical cancer prevention, especially for students. In addition to a healthy and clean lifestyle, prevention can also be done through Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. However, the Malang City Health Office is currently still waiting for the distribution of the HPV vaccine to continue the program that has become the focus of the Malang City Government.
Head of the Malang City Health Office, Husnul Muarif said that his office is currently intensively holding reproductive health counseling in schools in Malang City. Because with this counseling, according to him, students will be given a better understanding of the importance of maintaining reproductive health, especially before and after menstruation.
"So this is what we convey in schools for reproductive health, related to how and what to do to maintain her reproduction, when she is approaching and after menstruation. So we will continue this socialization program and the provision of HPV vaccination as soon as possible once the vaccine is available," said Husnul when confirmed by the media crew, Monday (5/6/2023).
Previously, Husnul said that since 2021, Malang City has become a pilot project for the HPV vaccination program by successfully reaching more than 500 female students from grades 4 and 5 in elementary schools. This year, the Malang City Health Office has recorded around 9.585 female students from grades 5 and 6 of elementary schools who are included in the list of candidates for the HPV vaccine.
Husnul said, the choice of children's age refers to the national guidelines and programs of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes RI). Where the target of HPV vaccination is currently still focused on the ages of 9 to 13 years, with the hope of providing earlier protection effectively.
In an effort to expand the scope of this program, Husnul also mentioned that the Malang City Health Office has planned to involve other communities, especially teenage and adult women. However, he reiterated that for now, the provision of free HPV vaccines still follows the national program that targets elementary school children.
Husnul further said that his party is also considering collaboration with third parties, considering the success of collaboration in providing Covid-19 vaccinations involving vaccine posts. However, the collaboration plan is still waiting for further instructions regarding vaccine distribution and the number of doses that will be received by Malang City.
"We are still waiting, what will the instructions be like, then how many doses will we get, then we can map out whether it can be done in the 16 existing health centers, or later we need help with the existing vaccine posts. But this year we have not received the vaccine distribution," he concluded. (say/yon)
