The HPV vaccine will be given to Grade 6 boys across the province for the first time this school year.
Grade 6 girls have been getting the immunization in B.C. for the past 7 or 8 years.
Parents will be getting letters about the immunizations in the coming months.
Dr. Meena Dawar, medical health officer for Vancouver Coastal Health says, of all the vaccinations given to school children, this one has had the lowest acceptance rate of between 65 to 75 per cent……
Dawar says most people infected with HPV don’t show any symptoms and can pass the virus on to others without knowing it.
For some people, she says, an HPV infection will clear on its own but sometimes it won’t go away and cells infected with the virus can become cancerous.
