HPV Canada

With the positive vote by the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School District headquartered in Leduc, Alberta, HPV Canada has reached a significant milestone: now all eligible children in Canadian public schools will have in-school access to HPV vaccination.

Yet citizens continue to work to help remove barriers to easy access to the HPV vaccine. At the moment, the largest school district that once banned the vaccine, Calgary Catholic, requires incorrect and misleading information to be sent home with children and posts such information on its website. Please see a letter here signed by citizens requesting that this practice cease.

When HPV Calgary began its work in June 2012, 12 publicly funded school districts in Canada had closed their doors to the HPV vaccine. A group of concerned citizens, physicians and health scientists formed HPV Calgary to help the trustees of the largest district, Calgary Catholic School District, understand the significance of a vaccine that prevents cancer for children, especially for children of low socio-economic status.

On November 28, 2012, HPV Calgary accomplished an important first step. The Calgary Catholic School District lifted its vaccine ban. Within one month, and thanks to the resourcefulness of public health and school administrators nurses and support staff, the HPV vaccine uptake climbed from about 30% of eligible children to 70%. That means to date, more than 1500 additional Grade Five girls in Calgary received the life-saving vaccine.

However, in two provinces and one territory, there remained 11 other publicly funded school districts that banned the vaccine.

HPV Calgary became HPV Canada, a national organization with over 240 volunteers from Vancouver to Halifax, including citizens, parents, patients, health scientists, physicians and artists.

Over a period of 18 months, HPV Canada communicated extensively with the elected trustees of school districts in Ontario, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Volunteers from HPV Canada have travelled to present to school boards in Burlington, Ontario; Yellowknife, Northwest Territories; and Leduc, Alberta.

On May 27, 2014, we are proud to say 12 missions to help children avoid cancer have now been accomplished.

Please view this short youtube video that describes these efforts and ends with a surprise. http://youtu.be/eRGv6YrINZs

If your school ban the vaccine, then please contact us confidentially at HPVCanada@gmail.com.