During a recent House Committee on Appropriations hearing to discuss the proposed Department of Health (DOH) budget for 2024, Hon. Angelica Natasha Co of the BHW Partylist and Vice Chairperson of the House Committee on Health expressed that there is a need to double-time on increasing HPV immunization coverage in the country to protect girls and women from cervical cancer.
“Tila po kasi napakalayo pa natin sa WHO goal kung saan ang Pilipinas ay nag commit na 90 percent ng mga 9-15 year old ang mababakunahan nito [HPV vaccine]. I hope we can look into it — na mas mapabilis pa ang pagbabakuna natin ng atingmga kabataan. Alam naman natin, pag nabakunahan, it will save lives. Mas importante ang prevention kesa sa curative.
In the same hearing, DOH Undersecretary Public Services Team Dr. Maria Rosario Vergeire, mentioned that the Department’s goal is to vaccinate 1 million grade 4 public school girls every year. She also underscored the DOH’s appeal to Congress for a higher allocation for HPV vaccines.
“With our current budget, we can cover 15 of our regions. Region 4B [and] Region 2 [are] not included in the allocations of HPV [vaccines]. Kasama po iyon sa appeals na naisumite namin sa House of Representatives if ever ma approve po, we can already cover nationwide for HPV vaccination of our grade 4 students.”
Under the National Expenditure Program, there is a reduced budget allocations for the 2024 HPV immunization program, which has been slashed from 1 million doses in 2023 to 750,000 doses in the incoming year, estimated to only reach around 375,000 school children next year. The DOH is appealing to Congress for an increased budget for the HPV immunization Program.
While thousands of parents rely on government school-based HPV vaccine programs to have their children protected from cervical cancer, a decrease in government spending for the HPV immunization program would mean lesser vaccine coverage and could potentially put thousands of young girls at risk of developing cervical cancer in the future.
This is why Hon. Co, who is a staunch supporter of grassroots healthcare, agreed that prevention through HPV vaccination is a more financially sound and life-saving solution than the lengthy government-subsidized cervical cancer treatments.
The House of Representatives began its review of the 2024 national budget in August. The House aims to approve the proposed national budget on or before Sept. 30.
