SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Female students who attend Yellowknife's Catholic Schools will have to go through the health care system to receive Gardasil - the HPV virus vaccination - following a YCS board meeting on Wednesday night.

Trustees Amy Hacala, left, Rose-Marie Jackson and superintendent Claudia Parker chat following the YCS board meeting that defeated the motion to administer the HPV vaccine in schools. - Charlotte Hilling/NNSL photo Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) HPV is a sexually transmitted infection Can effect both men and women There are about 30 different types of HPV, most cause no symptoms Three quarters of people will have an HPV virus in their lifetime Anyone involved in sexual activity involving genital contact is at risk HPV can cause cancer of the cervix, abnormal cervical cells, abnormal vulva cells, and genital warts Gardasil is already used in 93 countries In the NWT in the last 10 years there have been 14 cases of invasive cervical cancer and five women have died from cervical cancer NWT youth are sexually active at least two years ahead of other parts of Canada The NWT is the last territory or province to introduce the HPV vaccine

The motion to have a school-based vaccination program was decisively put down with only Rose-Marie Jackson and Amy Hacala voting in favour, and the remaining five trustees voting against it.

The program would have vaccinated all female students through Grades 4 to 12 and in years following all girls would be vaccinated in Grade 4. The vaccine would be administered at designated school sites and only to students who have obtained parental consent - something Yellowknife Education District No.1 has already agreed to.

Both sides agreed that the school board and its trustees were not qualified to make scientific and medical decisions and that parents should have the ultimate say in whether their daughters are vaccinated.

Hacala said if other immunization programs have been successfully run out of schools, the board should not be drawing a line in this case.

"I believe that if we deliver any vaccines in our schools, we must deliver all the vaccines in our schools. I don't think we're properly equipped as school board trustees to make judgements about vaccinations," she said.

"I trust the public health unit of the Department of Health and Social Services on recommendations about the course of vaccinations children should receive, while reserving the right as a parent to decide whether to vaccinate my child," she added.

However, board chair Mary Vane said the risks of getting cervical cancer from HPV have been "greatly overstated," and the safety of the vaccine would not be determined for several years to come.

"We do not have a crisis of cervical cancer in the NWT. Neither do we have a crisis in cervical cancer in Canada," she said.

"If in 10 years this vaccine has some serious side-effects, no parent can come back to this board and say, there was somebody that allowed this in the school and knew there was a possibility it wasn't safe ... I will put this decision back where it belongs - squarely on the shoulders of parents," she said.

Vane added that many parents she had spoken to said they signed permission slips without thinking because they assumed anything the school offered was safe.

Jackson, who put the motion forward, said allowing the vaccine to be administered at school would help start a dialogue between students, parents, teachers and health professionals about healthy sexual practises.

She cited the Catholic Medical Association, which supports the vaccine, stating that although HPV is spread through sexual contact, preventing disease is a moral act, no matter what the source.

"I strongly feel this is an opportunity to combine the values of our faith with the science of sound public health measures," she said.

Trustee Brian Nagel said he could not support the motion because he believed the pharmaceutical company responsible for Gardasil fast-tracked testing to get the drug on the market before rivals.

"I believe that the HPV vaccine in question has not been fully tested, and most will agree it will be a number of years before we understand the full impact and possible long-term side effects," he said.

Dr Kami Kandola, chief medical health officer, was at the meeting and gave a presentation about the vaccine before the votes were cast and was clearly dismayed by the result.

"It is a very sad day. We have a high-risk population and we don't have the best means of reaching them," she said.

Kandola said the most vulnerable girls will miss out if the vaccine is not available in schools.

"The well-to-do parents will go out of their way to find out about this vaccine and they will make those three appointments and get their daughter vaccinated. But the ones who need it the most will not have that access and they will not know about it.

"Vaccines are the great equalizer, but only if people have access. And by not providing access to those most vulnerable, then we do cause inequalities."

Kandola was disappointed by the opposing arguments and what she saw as a lack of substantiated claims.

"I went in to present the data, to present the evidence," she said.

"There are credible societies that support this vaccine. These virologists, paediatricians and specialists look at the literature and examine the data - generally, they should be trusted.

"They (opposing trustees) may have done research but they didn't cite the research. If you can go on the Internet you can find people's opinions. Is opinion evidence?"