Parents will start receiving an invitation to have their 12-year-old daughters immunised against the virus that causes cervical cancer.
In another change to the national immunisation programme, tuberculosis will stop being given to all children in schools and instead administered only to young children from high-risk countries.
The decision to start offering the vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) to girls born in 2000, which was announced earlier this year, was the result of a “proactive approach”, said Ray Busuttil, the superintendent of Public Health.
The virus is associated with the development of cervical cancer and genital warts, among others.
“Malta has a relatively low rate of cervical cancer but sexual activity is similar to that of other countries, which have a high incidence. By offering the vaccine, we are being proactive and preventing this cancer from reaching a high incidence,” Dr Busuttil said.
The HPV immunisation will target around 2,000 girls a year.
An appointment at a health clinic can be made for the afternoon or on a Saturday morning so as not to clash with school hours.
The TB vaccine, on the other hand, will stop being administered to secondary school children aged 12.
Research on the vaccine, which has been given in Malta since 1950, revealed that “in developed countries with a low incidence it doesn’t protect as much as we thought it would”, Dr Busuttil said.
Malta is classified as a country with a very low incidence of TB, just 7.6 cases per 100,000 people.
The World Health Organisation recommended that the vaccine be given at birth to children born to a family who were at high risk or in countries with a high prevalence rate of more than 40 cases per 100,000 population.
Dr Busuttil said these changes to the national immunisation programme were made following careful analysis of research, medical developments and international recommendations.
The Maltese authorities consulted with the European Centre for Disease Control and “they recommended we offer a selective vaccination of TB to high risk groups of children,” Dr Busuttil said.
It will be administered to children born to parents from or who lived in countries listed as high risk by the WHO, and those born to immigrant families.
There will also be a catch-up programme for children aged five years and under who were not given the vaccine.
Charmaine Gauci, director of disease prevention, said the TB vaccine did not target infectious pulmonary TB in adults.
With a lifespan of around 10 to 15 years, compared to a life-long span for other vaccines, it did not prevent infection or reactivation of the latent disease.