Only 10% of fifth grade students have received a first dose of vaccine against the papillomavirus, according to the first provisional figures from the Ministry of Health, which is awaiting the final results of its first campaign in middle schools to decide on possible adaptations this year. next.
“According to partial reports from regional health agencies, at least 92,262 students were vaccinated in colleges as of December 23, 2023”declared the Directorate General of Health to Agence France-Presse. “At this stage of the HPV vaccination campaign in college, the figures show a student vaccination rate of 5e around 10% »she specifies.
Promised at the beginning of 2023 by Mr. Macron, this vaccination campaign against human papillomaviruses (HPV), the cause of numerous cancers – cervix, vulva, vagina, ENT, anus – was launched at the beginning of October, in all public colleges and voluntary private establishments.
A vaccination far from expectations
Thanks to the information and communication campaign deployed since September by the National Cancer Institute (INCA), “it is possible that the vaccination operation proposed at the college will result in an increase in vaccinations” by doctors in practice, judged the Directorate General of Health.
Questioned in November by AFP, Aurélien Rousseau, then Minister of Health, acknowledged that the government’s initial objective would probably not be achieved, while hoping that 150,000 fifth grade students could be vaccinated this year. “It’s a start, it will take tenacity”he reacted, evoking heterogeneity between regions and families and a need to“adapt the tools”.
At the beginning of January, officials from the French Society of Colposcopy and Cervico-Vaginal Pathology (SFCPCV) judged that this vaccination was far from expectations, with a first glimpse ” disappointing “. For the SFCPCV, the campaign suffered, among other things, from an administrative organization “a little heavy and complicated”.
“The colleges received large envelopes to distribute to parents with an information letter, a prospectus (…) and the authorization sheet to be signed by both parents. And on the day of vaccination, you also need the health record”recalled Geoffroy Canlorbe, secretary general of the SFCPCV and practitioner at the AP-HP.
“The main failure is linked to the lack of direct and effective communication with parents”estimates, to AFP, Julia Maruani, vice-president of the SFCPCV and gynecologist in Marseille.
80% by 2030
The campaign may also have been affected by the death of a schoolboy near Nantes, the victim of a fall after post-vaccination discomfort. The general secretariat of Catholic education recommended at the end of October the ” to suspend “ in Catholic colleges under contract by “precaution”.
The administrative investigation opened after the death of the schoolboy did not reveal any “dysfunction in the organization of the vaccination campaign”, according to the regional health agency. In mid-November, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) recommended that, in the quarter of an hour following the injection, adolescents remain lying or sitting on the ground, leaning against a wall. .
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A more precise estimate of the total number of students vaccinated for the first dose will be carried out in the first quarter of 2024, and the complete assessment of this first year of the campaign – that is to say the number of vaccinated students having received two doses vaccine – will not be known until the end of the school year.
Based on the lessons learned from this assessment, “the authorities will make any possible adaptations” next year, assured the Ministry of Health. Whether this vaccination takes place in college or in the city, the vaccination coverage objective is 80% by 2030, as set by the ten-year strategy to combat cancer 2021-2030, he reaffirmed at the AFP.