Health Minister Alexandru Rafila announced that chronically ill patients will be able to receive compensated vaccines according to the project the ministry is working on. In addition, the minister says that from next year he wants the HPV vaccine to be compensated.

• “I think we have taken a big step for patients with chronic diseases. This does not apply to the vaccination program for children. Anyone with a chronic medical condition can benefit from a compensated vaccine. We are currently working on regulations with the Insurance House to reimburse vaccines so that patients with chronic conditions receive reimbursed vaccines, and beyond that, our idea is to increase access. You saw that there is a lot of interest in the HPV vaccine among teenage girls, let’s compensate for the HPV vaccine as soon as possible, within the next year,” Alexandru Rafila said on TVR Info on Monday, News reported. ro.

When Rafil was asked whether the rules of the cancer control plan would be finalized in 6 months, he explained that there is a working group at the level of the Ministry of Health, which deals with this issue.

• “Precisely in order to show that we are serious and not superficial, we proposed, before the adoption of the law, to introduce an amendment that would allow these norms to be implemented within a reasonable time, that is, in 6 months. There is a working group created at the level of the Ministry of Health, responsible for this working group, Mr. State Secretary Bachiu, the first meeting has already taken place. This month we set the list of regulations that must be developed and the time period with the schedule for the implementation of these regulations, so that at the end of 6 months we will be able to have all the regulations that we must apply or develop during this period. Of course, there are other things that may need to be done later, but the rules that need to be implemented in those 6 months will definitely be implemented, because that is what we have created a special body, led by the Secretary of State, who will be responsible for looking for technical support for the implementation of these norms,” ​​said Rafila.

Responding to the question of how to convince people to go for examination, for prevention, Rafila emphasized that first of all, patients should contact their family doctor.

“The idea is that you need to go to your family doctor first for an examination. This idea that you need to go to the hospital to undergo an examination is not correct,” said Rafila.

How many adolescent girls aged 11 to 18 were vaccinated from 2020 to summer 2022

Almost 120,000 Romanian adolescent girls between the ages of 11 and 18 were vaccinated against the HPV virus – the most notorious sexually transmitted viral infection in the world, responsible for several types of cancer, most notably cervical cancer – in the first 2 and a half years free campaign of the Ministry of Health.

• The free HPV vaccination campaign run by the Ministry of Health started in 2020 and is currently targeting girls aged 11 to 18. In the first year and a half, the campaign was aimed only at girls between the ages of 11 and 14, but last autumn it was extended to the age group of 11-18 years through an order signed by Ioana Mykhailo, the Minister of Health at the time, in the last days of her mandate .
• 43,384 adolescent girls aged 11 to 18 from Romania, the European country with the highest cervical cancer mortality rate, received free HPV vaccination as part of the Ministry of Health’s free campaign in the first half of 2022. Another 22,009 parents registered by the middle of this year with requests from family doctors to vaccinate their daughters, show the latest data centralized by the National Center for Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Public Health, provided by the Ministry of Health at the request of HotNews.ro .
• 46,628 adolescent girls aged 11 to 18 in Romania were vaccinated against HPV for free as part of a free campaign conducted by the Ministry of Health in 2021. (Data source: centralized data of the National Center for Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases within the Institute of Public Health and sent by the Ministry of Health at the request of HotNews.ro)
• 28,698 adolescent girls aged 11 to 14 in Romania received free HPV vaccinations as part of a free campaign conducted by the Ministry of Health in 2020. (Data source: centralized data of the National Center for Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases within the National Institute of Public Health and sent by the Ministry of Health at the request of HotNews.ro)