Cervical Cancer Vaccine pilots in S/Phikwe

Onalenna Kelebeile | Friday March 7, 2014 16:38

 

Matlhogonolo was addressing the Selebi-Phikwe Town Council this week where he stated that the vaccine would be rolled out to the rest of the country in 2017.

The mayor explained to the councillors that the focus age group is young girls doing primary school from standard 5, 6 to 7.

According to the Urban Development Report the vaccine will also include out-of-school girls of the same age group.

The vaccine is a six-month project that will be conducted in three phases.  The girls will be encouraged to stay in Selebi-Phikwe during the months of the study.

Matlhogonolo told council that The District Health Management Team is establishing a clinic for visualisation inspection with acetic at Botshabelo IDCC and a LEEP clinic at Selebi-Phikwe Government Hospital to treat patients with cancer of the cervix.

“A new vaccine against cancer of the cervix will be given to girls aged between nine and 13 years from the beginning of April until October 2014,” he said.

Matlhogonolo also added that Selebi-Phikwe was chosen together with two other districts, being Kweneng East and Kweneng West for the pilot project.

Meanwhile, the mayor was happy that all clinics in Selebi-Phikwe were now prescribing and dispensing ARVs and that there is no waiting list.

Currently there are 7,055 patients on ARVs with only three deaths recorded in the previous quarter. “This is a serious concern and we shall do everything in our power to achieve zero infections in our town,” he said.

The full council session was also informed that all private patients who accessed ARVs through private clinics have also come back under government’s wing.  Both government and BCL hospitals now absorb these patients.

The UDC report also showed that the Tsosoloso HIV Testing Campaign was successfully carried out from July to August last year.

The campaign aimed at increasing proportion of clients accessing HIV Testing and Counselling services from 56 percent in 2008 to 70 percent by the end of 2014.

The campaign attracted 4,262 individuals and 137 couples.  A total of 2,161 men tested while 2,101 women tested.

“The town also prides itself with the fact that results of the HIV tests done on babies after delivery, that were received for this quarter were negative and there was no baby born with the HIV virus,” stated the UDC report.

The report further stated that there have also been no reported cases of notifiable diseases or any disease outbreaks.