Hoshiarpur- IMA Hoshiarpur organised seminar on routine immunization and vaccination for prevention of cervical cancer under the leadership of District President Dr. Balwinderjit Singh.
In which Jalandhar IMA President Dr. Bhutani, State IMA Coordinator for HPV Vaccine Drive Dr. Pooja Kapoor, City Chief Gynecologist Dr. Harish Bassi, District Immunization Officer Dr. Seema Garg, National Biomedical Waste Management Committee member Dr. Rajinder Sharma, IMA Hoshiarpur Secretary Dr. Sandeep Singh, Treasurer Dr. Amit Gupta, Senior Members Dr. Kuldeep Singh and Dr. Keshav Sood etc. participated.
During this, National Headquarters IMA made the members aware about cervical cancer and other cancers caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and HPV vaccine available for its prevention.
After this, District Immunization Officer Dr. Seema Garg shared information about the current vaccination program for vaccination of pregnant women and children and told about the new vaccines included in the Universal Immunization Program in the last few years to protect children from various diseases.
Also, while telling about the Sansa program being run by the Health Department to prevent pneumonia, she requested the parents of small children to be aware of the symptoms of pneumonia. He appealed to pediatricians to be aware of it to prevent anemia, vitamin A deficiency etc. in children.
He thanked private hospitals for regularly uploading delivery data on the U-WIN app. Along with this, he asked to pay special attention to uploading the report of vaccination of newborns at birth, examination of congenital defects visible within one hour of birth and initiation of breastfeeding on the HMIS portal.
Dr. Pooja Kapoor encouraged all the members to share information about vaccination to prevent HPV wherever they meet. Sharing his experience, he said that there is a great lack of information about this disease in the society and there is no information about the vaccines available for prevention. He said that only two vaccines at an interval of six months from 9 to 13 years protect against cervical cancer.
But after the age of 14, three vaccines have to be administered. These vaccines can be administered to women up to 45 years of age. Finally, senior member of IMA, ophthalmologist Dr. Kuldeep Singh, while concluding the discussion during the seminar, said that the need of the hour is that everyone should have the right to know about this dreadful disease and the vaccine to prevent it.
He suggested that IMA should form teams and give information about it to students of class 9 to 12, so that just as we all know the importance of other vaccines, in the same way we can also become aware about this vaccine. He also requested the government to reduce its price, so that like smallpox and polio, cervical cancer can also be eradicated from the society.