Opponents fight Calgary Catholic school ban on HPV vaccine

Schools historically have played a role in public health. When I was a kid, I got the polio vaccine at the Roman Catholic elementary school I attended in Calgary.

Now the oil city's taxpayer-funded Catholic school board has barred giving the free vaccine for human papilloma virus, a cause of cervical cancer, to young girls on orders from Bishop Frederick Henry on religious grounds.

The decision, based on an argument that providing protection from the sexually transmitted virus will encourage teen girls to become sexually active because they think it's safe, has sparked a backlash from medical ethicists and doctors, the National Post reported.

Juliet Guidchon, an assistant professor in community health sciences at the University of Calgary, castigated the Calgary Roman Catholic School District for knuckling under to the bishop.

"They have delegated their decision making to a non-elected official without expertise in evidence-based medicine or public health," said Guidchon, a practising Catholic.

[Related: HPV Vaccine for teens: Doctors voice their concerns]

Calgary is the only major Canadian city where a publicly funded school system withholds the vaccine on religious grounds, said the group, dubbed HPV Calgary.

But at least eight other religious school boards in Alberta have barred the vaccine Gardasil from being administered on school grounds, the Post reported.

Arguments that refusing the vaccine puts the most vulnerable children at risk fell on deaf ears, said Dr. Ian Mitchell, a professor of pediatrics and a bioethicist with the University of Calgary.

"If you are an immigrant, if you are not so affluent, if you don't have a car, if you're very dependent on an hourly wage, it is very unlikely that you'll get immunization," he said.

Catholic school children in Alberta were sent home with a package of information, including a letter from Alberta Health Services about Gardasil and another signed by six bishops advising parents to protect their children from "counterproductive influences and potential abuse," the Post said.

"Although school-based immunization delivery systems generally result in high numbers of students completing immunization, a school-based approach to vaccination sends a message that early sexual intercourse is allowed, as long as one uses 'protection,' " it said.

Guichon said studies have found no correlation between HPV vaccination and increased promiscuity.

"What we see anecdotally is that the children don't jump into bed, they go out for recess," she said. "It's hard to debate this because it's not grounded in evidence or rationality."

Edmonton's Catholic board allowed vaccinations in the schools, resulting in an almost 70 per cent update, compared with 18.9 per cent in Calgary, the Post reported.

"The overarching concern or issue here is that anything we do within our Catholic schools have to be congruent with the teachings of our church," board chairwoman Mary Martin said. "At the end of the day (we're providing) a faith-based education that is in alignment with the direction of the Alberta bishops."

The Roman Catholic Church has opposed HPV vaccination since the federal government provided funding for it to the provinces in 2007. Its initial arguments were medical and mercenary.

"The speedy adoption of Gardasil by Health Canada in Ottawa follows a massive lobbying campaign by its makers, Merck-Frosst," said a 2007 editorial in Catholic Insight. "It's efficacy and longterm effects have still been unsufficiently tested and tabulated, particularly when used in combination with other vaccines."

But it also raised the argument that vaccination implied sex was OK and safe.

"Several boards therefore, decided to include a copy of the bishops' letter with information sent home about Gardasil; the ultimate responsibility will be pushed on the parents," the editorial said.

HPV vaccination has been a political hot potato in the United States for years, an article on National Public Radio's website noted last year.

Texas Governor Rick Perry, an early favourite among religious conservatives for the Republican presidential nomination, found himself tripped up over his initial support for the HPV vaccine.

Rival Michele Bachmann claimed he had pushed the drug at the request of Merck, which contributed $30,000 to his gubernatorial campaigns and employed one of his former aides as a lobbyist, the Washington Post reported.

But when he launched his White House bid, Perry called his support of the vaccination program "a mistake."