{"id":635505,"date":"2026-09-25T10:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T10:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635505\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T10:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T10:20:11","slug":"call-for-young-people-to-avail-of-hpv-vaccine-catch-up-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/635505\/","title":{"rendered":"Call for young people to avail of HPV vaccine catch-up programme"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lancet study highlights impact of inoculation in significantly reducing cervical cancer deaths among young women<\/p>\n

Young people who previously missed out on receiving the HPV vaccine are to be given a second chance to avail of the life-changing inoculation through a new HSE initiative.<\/p>\n

Under the latest phase of the Laura Brennan HPV Vaccine Catch-Up programme, vaccination teams have begun visiting post-primary schools across the country to offer free HPV vaccination to students in second, third, fourth and fifth year who have not previously received the vaccine.<\/p>\n

Home-educated young people in eligible age groups can also access the free vaccine, which is already offered annually to boys and girls in their first year of secondary school.<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/p>\n

Laura Brennan, whose advocacy transformed HPV vaccine uptake in Ireland<\/p>\n

The programme continues the legacy of the late Laura Brennan, whose advocacy transformed awareness of HPV vaccination in Ireland. During the final months of her life, she campaigned publicly to encourage young people to get the HPV vaccine. In Laura\u2019s words, \u2018the HPV vaccine saves lives; it could have saved mine\u2019.<\/p>\n

Preliminary data from the first phase of the programme show that more than 2,000 young people who had previously missed their HPV vaccine went on to receive the jab via the catch-up initiative.<\/p>\n

The vaccine protects against a range of HPV-related cancers, including cervical, head and neck tumours, and cancers of the penis and anus.<\/p>\n

A recent study published in The Lancet showed that cervical cancer deaths among young women in England have fallen dramatically since the introduction of the HPV vaccine programme, with no cervical cancer deaths recorded among women aged 20-24 between 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n

Laura\u2019s mother Bernie said: \u201cLaura would have turned 34 this year but she died of cervical cancer, a HPV-related cancer, when she was 26. As I always say, prevention is better than cure and prevention is definitely better than no cure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a boy or girl in first year, make sure they get their HPV vaccine. If they missed out in first year, they have a chance to catch-up now with the launch of this programme in Laura\u2019s name. Don\u2019t miss the opportunity to save them from HPV-related cancers when they grow up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lancet study highlights impact of inoculation in significantly reducing cervical cancer deaths among young women Young people who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":635506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,269937,24531,61,60,269938,63723],"class_list":["post-635505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-hpv-human-papilloma-virus","tag-hpv-vaccine","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-laura-brennan-hpv-vaccine-catch-up","tag-vaccination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/635506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}