ADDRESSING INEQUITIES IN CANCER PREVENTION CALLING FOR HPV VACCINATION FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

Transcription

1 ADDRESSING INEQUITIES IN CANCER PREVENTION CALLING FOR HPV VACCINATION FOR BOYS AND GIRLS Co-hosted by Nessa Childers MEP and Karin Kadenbach MEP 25 APRIL AM European Parliament, Room A5G305 Brussels

2 AGENDA Introduction Ms. Karin Kadenbach MEP What is HPV and the importance of prevention Speaker: Dr Xavier Bosch, Senior consultant at Cancer Epidemiology Research Program (CERP), Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) The Patient Voice Speaker: Dr Robert O'Connor, Head of Research, Irish Cancer Society Why is it time to make HPV vaccination accessible to both genders? Speaker: Prof Chris Bentley, Expert consultant on health inequalities HPV vaccination in Europe achieving equality and equity across Europe Speaker: Mr. Peter Baker, Men s Health Consultant The way forward Policy Recommendations from the Expert Panel Speaker: Prof Marc van Ranst, Instituut KU Leuven Moving towards universal vaccination: Panel discussion and examples of best practice where governments have taken leadership in this area (e.g.austria, Switzerland, Slovenia) Dr. Paolo Bonanni, Professor of Hygiene in the Faculty of Medicine and Director of the Specialization School in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Florence (Italy) Dr. Laurent Abramowitz, Gastrenteologist and Hepatologist, Responsible for Proctology at Bichat Univesity Hospital (Paris) Facilitated by Peter Baker Conclusion: The Call for Action and outline of policy actions to take The event is organised with the support from MSD.

3 SPEAKERS NESSA CHILDERS MEP MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT FOR IRELAND, MEMBER OF THE SOCIALIST & DEMOCRATS GROUP (S&D) Ms. Childers was elected as a Member of the European Parliament for the Ireland East Constituency in 2009, when she also became a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). Since then her work has focused on tackling the main problems in the European society, including cancer. As the Vice President of the MEPs Against Cancer Group, Ms. Childers is committed to ensuring that cancer remains high on the political agenda and has taken numerous political initiatives aiming at improving cancer control in Europe. In this frame, Ms. Childers has publicly advocated for prevention programmes having the potential to decrease the burden of cancer and tackle disparity while ensuring more equitable healthcare. Ms. Childers is also a strong defender of equality in general and gender equality in particular. KARIN KADENBACH MEP MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT FOR AUSTRIA, MEMBER OF THE SOCIALIST & DEMOCRATS GROUP (S&D) Member of the European Parliament since 2009, Ms. Kadenbach has been a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) in both 7th and 8th parliamentary terms. Ms. Kadenbach has openly and strongly defended the need for Europe to encourage its citizens to be vaccinated and to restore public trust in vaccines, especially when it comes to childhood immunization, through dialogue and information based on scientific arguments. She has also advocated for the need to find new approaches to engage parents, health professionals and decision-makers in the EU in public health strategies on immunisation. Ms. Kadenbach initiated a European coalition on vaccination as part of a broader effort to improve cross-border cooperation against vaccine-preventable diseases. Ms. Kadenbach is also a member of the MEPs Against Cancer Group and she has been involved in various political initiatives related to different types of cancer. In 2014, the MEP supported the proposal to establish a European Parliament Intergroup on Health for Citizens, including stakeholders such as the European Cancer Patients Association and the Organisation for European Cancer Institutes. DR LAURENT ABRAMOWITZ GASTRENTEOLOGIST AND HEPATOLOGIST, RESPONSIBLE FOR PROCTOLOGY AT BICHAT UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL (PARIS) Dr. Abramowitz is the president of the GREP (Groupe de Recherche En Proctologie de la Société Nationale Française en Colo-Proctologie/Proctology Research Group of the French National Society in Colo-Proctology). He has authored numerous presentations, interviews and articles on HPV. He wrote several recommendations on proctology and in particular on HPV and anal cancer. Dr. Abramowitz was a member of the expert group that advised on the policy recommendations.

4 PETER BAKER MEN S HEALTH CONSULTANT Peter Baker is an independent consultant committed to improving the health of men and boys. He supports organisations in the public, private and third sectors that want to begin or develop their work on men s health. His experience in the men s health field is unique: for 12 years, he was Chief Executive of the Men s Health Forum, England and Wales leading men s health charity. He is now Director of Global Action on Men s Health, a NGO that is working to put men and boys on the global health agenda. He has previously also been health editor of a popular men s magazine, author of two self-help books for men and launch editor of the website. His current work includes advocating HPV vaccination for boys in the UK and he has a role as Campaign Director of HPV Action, a partnership of 45 professional and patient groups. Peter Baker was a member of the expert group that advised on the policy recommendations. PROF CHRIS BENTLEY EXPERT CONSULTANT ON HEALTH INEQUALITIES Chris Bentley is a former Department of Health consultant specializing in population level health improvement, inequalities and the social determinants of health. He was head of the National Support Team addressing health inequalities across England. As a medical Director of Public Health, prior to that, he had a particular interest in sexual health, HIV and AIDs. He advised the Government on regulations affecting introduction of commissioning for sexual health services through the All Party Parliamentary Group on GUM and AIDS. He now has independent contracts at local, regional and national level in as well as work in continental Europe. Recent work included a programme to address inequalities in uptake in HPV vaccination of girls across England and Wales. He is currently a member of the national Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation (ACRA) in England. Prof. Chris Bentley was a member of the expert group that advised on the policy recommendations. DR PAOLO BONANNI PROFESSOR OF HYGIENE IN THE FACULTY OF MEDICINE AND DIRECTOR OF THE SPECIALIZATION SCHOOL IN HYGIENE AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE (ITALY) Dr. Bonanni is Professor of Hygiene in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Florence, Italy, and Director of the Specialization School in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the University of Florence. His scientific activity has covered the epidemiology and prevention of HPV and other infectious diseases, including clinical trials, surveillance on the impact of vaccination strategies at the national and regional level, and economic evaluation of vaccination strategies. He was a member of the last National Vaccination Commission of the Italian Ministry of Health between 2007 and 2008, and has acted as an expert consultant for the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). He is presently member of the European Technical Advisory Group of Experts on Vaccination (ETAGE) at WHO-EURO, Copenhagen. He is the Director of the University of Florence Post-Graduate Course on 'Vaccines and Vaccination Strategies', established in Dr. Bonanni is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific papers published in international and national journals. He received various grants from the Italian Ministry of University on projects regarding vaccine-preventable infections and was responsible of a research unit in different EU-funded projects, including one on vaccine safety, attitudes and training (VACSATC). Dr. Bonanni was a member of the expert group that advised on the policy recommendations.

5 DR XAVIER BOSCH SENIOR CONSULTANT TO THE CANCER EPIDEMIOLOGY RESEARCH PROGRAM (CERP) AT THE CATALAN INSTITUTE OF ONCOLOGY (ICO) Dr F. Xavier Bosch conducts epidemiological research focusing on cancers linked to infectious agents. His main research studies focus on cancer of the liver, the cervix, the skin, vagina, anus, penis and cancers of the head and neck. He has also conducted studies on diet and colorectal cancer and headed a programme of implementation and methodological research in cancer registration. Dr Bosch s research projects on viruses and cancer have been instrumental in demonstrating the causal role of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in cervical cancer and played a catalytic role for the initiation of the first vaccine trials and for the evaluation of HPV tests as screening tools. Dr Bosch was an early introducer of the now called 'molecular epidemiology', by designing studies that integrate novel biological assays at DNA level to assess exposure to viral carcinogens. Relevant epidemiological field studies have been carried out in over 35 countries around the world, particularly in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The final and more practical goal of his research has extended into the application of the etiological knowledge towards the prevention of cancer. As part of the efforts to bridge knowledge with the medical and public health communities, since 2001, Dr Bosch initiated and headed a program of international reviews, acts as editor- in- chief of the journal Papillomavirus research (PVR) the official journal of the International Papillomavirus Society and an international newsletter HPV WORLD. He also runs an international e-learning program on cervical cancer etiology and prevention. Dr Xavier Bosch was a member of the expert group that advised on the policy recommendations. ROBERT O'CONNOR HEAD OF RESEARCH, IRISH CANCER SOCIETY Dr. Robert O Connor is the Head of Research for the Irish Cancer Society, Ireland s largest cancer charity. The Irish Cancer Society is also the largest charitable funder of cancer research in the state with over 100 researchers currently funded across its various schemes. A pharmacologist by training, Dr. O Connor has 20 years of experience in pharmacology, biosafety and translational cancer research. He took up a postdoc in cancer drug resistance in the NCTCC/NICB, a specialist biomedical research facility, where he became involved in translational and cancer clinical trial research. In 2007 he assumed the chairmanship of the translational subgroup of Cancer Trials Ireland (formerly ICORG), Ireland s national cancer clinical trials network. In 2010 he became a lecturer in Biological Science in the School of Nursing and Human Sciences in Dublin City University (DCU) and moved to take up his current role leading the research effort of the Irish Cancer Society in February of 2015 and has also simultaneously acted at the head of communications for the society for the first half of He is passionate about evidence-based communications to inform and empower improvements in cancer outcome. PROF MARC VAN RANST CHAIRMAN OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY OF THE BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES GROUP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LEUVEN Since 2012, Prof Van Ranst is the chairman of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of the Biomedical Sciences group at the University of Leuven. At the University Hospitals Leuven, he is head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine. He also heads the clinical virology laboratory, and is director of the AIDS reference laboratory and of several national reference laboratories. Since 2007, Prof Van Ranst is responsible for influenza pandemic preparedness planning in Belgium, and he was responsible as interministerial commissary for the Belgian crisis-management during the Mexican flu pandemic in

6 In his research laboratory, several students are currently working on studies on the epidemiology and molecular evolution of DNA and RNA viruses. He published over 350 scientific papers in peer-reviewed and Medline-indexed journals and contributed chapters to twenty books on viral molecular evolution and bioinformatics. Prof Van Ranst teaches virology, epidemiology, and bioinformatics at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Leuven and at the UCLL College Leuven in Belgium. Since 1995, he holds an affiliate academic position at the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, where he teaches Bioinformatics. Prof Van Ranst was a member of the expert group that advised on the policy recommendations.

7 HPV VACCINATION FOR BOYS & GIRLS POLICY 1. PROMOTE HPV VACCINATION Strongly promote the case for the use of HPV vaccination as an effective and safe strategy to prevent and control HPV-related diseases and cancers with healthcare policy makers, and the general public. 2. DEFINE AND MONITOR HPV COVERAGE RATES Define and monitor EU coverage targets for HPV vaccination in girls and boys, and the achievements of these objectives, publishing the results and expected outcomes in terms of HPVrelated diseases avoided and to be expected. 3. PUBLIC EDUCATION ON HPV Raise awareness among parents and young people of the causes, risk factors and consequences of HPV diseases and provide information on HPV vaccination safety and effectiveness, to address vaccine hesitancy and increase uptake in girls. 4. FACILITATE COMMUNICATION FROM HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS TO THE PUBLIC Provide healthcare professionals with support, clear guidelines and communication tools to inform and help address HPV vaccination with the lay public. 5. MAKE HPV VACCINATION A PRIORITY IN NATIONAL CANCER CONTROL POLICIES Make HPV vaccination a priority in national cancer control policies and objectives, by expanding recommendations and programme objectives beyond cervical cancer, to target other HPV-related cancers and diseases in both genders. 6. INVEST IN UNIVERSAL HPV VACCINATION Invest in universal HPV vaccination to contribute to the protection of young populations from preventable cancers and conditions ensuring an enhanced quality of life and equal chances. 7. ECDC Invite the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to consider formally recommending HPV vaccination programmes in boys in order to address inequalities between European citizens in cancer prevention by extending HPV vaccination to both sexes. These policy recommendations have been collected and edited by RPP Healthcare (Rohde Public Policy) with the financial support from MSD for meeting costs, layouting and printing. Members of the expert group were compensated by MSD for the time spent on the drafting of the policy recommendations. MSD provided editorial comments to ensure ethics and compliance on the content prior to the validation by the Expert Group.

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