By extending the age group of children for full reimbursement of HPV vaccines, Slovakia can achieve high protection not only from cervical cancer and from genital cancer in boys. Vaccination can effectively reduce the risk of cancer in both girls and boys.
HPV, or otherwise human papillomavirus, plays an important role in the development of not only cervical cancer in women but also other types of cancers and diseases of mucous membranes or skin diseases, both in men and women. HPV is an infectious virus that spreads through not only sexual contact but also mucosal contact.
Based on expert consensus, 12-year-old girls and boys should be vaccinated as a matter of priority (until the end of the 13th year of life), while free vaccination against HPV with a modern 9-valent vaccine is allowed in Slovakia as of May 2022. Since 1 December 2023, the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, together with its partners, has introduced the possibility of revaccination of children who are under 12 years of age as well as 13 and 14 years of age, i.e. until 15 years of age, free of charge.
This means that for the 12-15 age group for which a two-dose schedule is intended, the vaccine is fully covered by public health insurance.
At today's press conference, Minister of Health Zuzana Dolink expressed her great support for anti-HPV vaccination by the Ministry and called on the parents of the children: my call to parents is simple to take an interest in vaccination, get facts and information on vaccination from health care professionals and have your child vaccinated. HPV vaccine is safe and saves lives. Extensive studies have shown its high efficacy. Now it is time to act and eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem.

The head specialist of the Ministry of Health for General Care for Children and Adolescents and the president of the Slovak Society of Primary Paediatric Care SLS MUDr. Elena Prokopová also turns to parents to seriously consider the vaccination of their children against HPV: they now have a unique opportunity to protect their children from cancer caused by this virus. From a medical point of view, it is optimal to vaccinate children, girls and boys at a time when it is believed that they have not yet been able to infect the virus and also at a time when the immune response to vaccination is greatest. This age is between 12 and 15 years. Therefore, MZ SR has currently extended the reimbursement of HPV vaccine to the entire age interval. Free vaccination of children against HPV is a significant step in the prevention of serious cancers, especially cervical cancer.
Acknowledgements include all cooperating subjects, patient organisations, municipalities as well as health insurance companies for their support in spreading HPV vaccination awareness. All partners are aware of the benefits that vaccination against HPV will bring primarily to citizens, but also to the entire health sector in the future.
Representatives of all three health insurance companies publicly stated at a press conference that they would support vaccination in their campaigns and through action to help increase vaccination rates for selected ages.
The introduction of a nine-valent vaccine into full pay for 12-year-old children in 2022 has already contributed to increasing the interest in vaccination. The best-injected anti-HPV years so far are children born in 2010: at least one dose of 43% of girls and 22% of boys were vaccinated against HPV in 2022 and 2023. In the district of Banská Štiavnica, more than 80% of twelve-year-old girls have already been vaccinated and in the district of Žiar nad Hronom more than 67% of 12-year-old boys are the pediatricians leaders in HPV vaccination.
The Minister of Health, together with the main specialist in general care for children and adolescents, send a joint letter of thanks to the paediatricians in Slovakia for their work and support in their efforts in vaccination against HPV.