SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Starting this coming school year, girls in Grade 4 in the NWT will be offered vaccinations against HPV, a sexually-transmitted infection that is known to cause cervical cancer.

"One case of a person dying from cervical cancer is too much," said Wanda White, communicable disease specialist with the Department of Health and Social Services, adding there have been 14 deaths attributed to cervical cancer in the NWT over the past 10 years.

"We feel obligated of course to provide the vaccine to every young person in the NWT, and that's what our program is about," said White.

The department has been struggling to get the funding together for the vaccination program since the vaccine came on the market.

Now, with a boost from the federal government, the department will be able to provide the program for at least five years.

"For 2009-10, it doesn't cost the GNWT anything," said Damien Healy, spokesperson for the department.

"We have funds from the federal government in the amount of $388,000 (from) a federal trust fund for provinces and territories to use for start-up costs for HPV programs."

After that, Healy said it will cost the territorial government $331,000 per year until the program ends in 2014.

Then "it'll continue, hopefully," said Healy.

The current chair of the Yellowknife Catholic School board, Mary Vane, said the board has not yet been contacted about the plan for this fall, and has made no decision yet as to whether they will allow the vaccinations to take place in the schools.

"We have not had a letter requesting permission to have the vaccine in our schools, and when we do receive this letter we will put it on a board agenda and it will be discussed at a board meeting," said Vane. She added that as the board is about to break for summer, this discussion will most likely not happen until the fall.

White said abstinence, the Catholic church's preferred method of preventing STIs, works but added it is not a popular mode of preventing STIs in the North.

"Abstinence is an answer to a lot of the transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs)," said White. "I don't disagree with that whatsoever - but I also know our high rate of STIs, and I also know from youth surveys how many young people engage in sexual activities.

"It's ultimately up to parents and society to educate youth to make better decisions, and there's absolutely no evidence to support that giving the HPV vaccine is going to promote promiscuity."

White said even if public health nurses are not permitted to conduct the vaccinations at schools, the vaccine will still be available through Public Health.