Peeling HPV Vaccination Program Targeting School Children

JAKARTA The government is again holding the School Children's Immunization Month from August to November. One of the immunizations given is the HPV vaccine for 5th and 6th grade murals. Is HPV vaccination free for elementary school children more effective in preventing cervical cancer?

The government through the Ministry of Health is organizing a program to provide free HPV vaccinations in the hope that it can free Indonesia from cervix cancer by 2030. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin when opening the Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Forum 2025 in Bali, Tuesday (17/6/2025) emphasized that this effort was very urgent, considering that cervical cancer was one of the main causes of women's death in Indonesia.

The cervical cancer is the second killer cancer for women in Indonesia after breast cancer. So maybe every 25 minutes there is one Indonesian woman who dies from cancer," said Minister of Health Budi.

HPV stands for human papillomavirus or the papilloma virus in humans. HPV consists of at least 150 types of viruses and each type is given a number.

The Indonesian Pediatrician Association (IDAI) of the HPV vaccine is useful for preventing diseases caused by the HPV virus. HPV itself has actually been declared a cause of cervical cancer for a long time.

However, it turns out that not only cervical cancer can be caused by HPV. Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said other cancers caused by HPV are vulva cancer (circularly in front of pubic bones), vaginal cancer, anus cancer, penis cancer, head cancer, and neck cancer.

This cancer can occur decades after a person is infected with HPV through vaginal, anal, and oral sex. A person who is already infected with this virus does not immediately show symptoms, but can spread through a touch of the skin during sexual contact.

In Indonesia, cervical cancer or cervical neck cancer is the second-highest killer for women after breast cancer.

World Cancer Observation (Globocan) noted that in Indonesia there were 36,633 new cases and 21,003 deaths from cervical cancer in 2021. This figure increased 15 percent compared to 2018.

In a simpler picture, on average 57 women in Indonesia die every day from this disease.

The reason someone has contracted the HPV virus is mainly because of changing sex partners. However, Doctor Andrijono, chairman of the Indonesian Gynecology Oncology Association, explained that the cause was not always like that.

"The HPV virus is everywhere. The virus can enter through the vagina through dirty water, through dirty toilets, through hands. The HPV virus can also be transmitted through touch of the skin. Therefore, even though there is only one sexual partner, the risk of infection remains," he explained.

The question that arises now is why is HPV vaccination given to grade 5 elementary / mI students or equivalent?

Doctor Elizabeth Jane Soepardi's immunization expert said HPV vaccination would be more effective given to someone who had not been infected with HPV.

"Data from all over the country, on average those who have not had sex are those aged 9 to 13 years. Therefore, we injected this vaccine to grade 5 elementary school students," said Jane.

HPV vaccinations have actually been given free of charge since 2016 in several areas such as DKI Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Manado and Makassar, Karang Anyar and Sukoharjo, as well as Kediri and Lamongan.

Program itu masih terbatas di kota-kota tertentu karena terbatang anggaran. Wilayah-kawasan itu dipilih karena jumlah kasus cancer serviksnya paling banyak.

Citing a number of sources, since 2023 the HPV vaccine can be received free of charge by girls in 5th and 6th grade in all parts of Indonesia. The Ministry of Health set a high target to free Indonesia from cervical neck cancer by 2030.

Thus, they are targeting the provision of vaccines upstream, namely children, as an effort to eliminate morbidity from cervical cancer.

Moreover, along with the increasing use of technology and access to pornography, which is increasingly accessible to children, the current lifestyle of children has changed a lot, causing pornography addiction.

Recently, people were surprised by the sexual behavior of 4th grade elementary school children who were addicted to sex, or 16-year-old teenagers who became pimps for children their age. These facts illustrate the changing behavior of children today.

The Ministry of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection (KemenPPPA) noted that the number of child marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic increased to 2,400. Data from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in 2023 revealed that 25.53 million women in Indonesia were married under the age of 18. Indonesia is ranked fourth with the most cases of early marriage in the world, after India, Bangladesh, and China.

Meanwhile, the Indonesia Judicial Research Society (IJRS) noted that in the 2019-2023 range, 95 percent of marriage dispensation applications were granted by religious courts and district courts. A third of the reasons submitted in the dispensation application are child pregnancy.

This children's behavior phenomenon certainly makes children more at risk of contracting sexual illness. Therefore, HPV vaccination, which can eventually be reached by every child regardless of economic or social levels, is a separate hope. The HPV vaccine is only one tool that can be used to protect not only health, but also the future of Indonesian children.