The number of students who have received the HPV vaccine has plummeted.
Take-up rates for the vaccine had increased to 80% in 2019, but the Irish Examiner reports that it fell to 53% last year, with some 32,000 first year students not receiving the jab.
The HSE says many schools were unable to facilitate vaccinations last September due to the pandemic, but campaigners are expressing anger, and warning that lives will be lost to cancer if the programme is not restarted as a priority.
Among those who have called for the vaccine rollout to resume is the family of the late Enniswoman Laura Brennan, whose own advocacy for the vaccine played a key role in seeing take-up rates increase.
Earlier this month, the Brennan family, including her brother Kevin, said the HPV programme cannot be forgotten about.
This interview was broadcast on March 8th, 2021.
