The Halton Catholic school board intently overcame a shift Tuesday night that would have made it the first in Ontario to forbid public health functionaries from giving the HPV vaccine to Grade 8 girls.
The vaccine defends against illness from four separate strains of human papilloma virus, which combined cause 70% of all cervical cancer cases.
The program is planned for as many as 85,000 girls’ area wide this year.
It is projected that around 500 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and over 100 die of it, each year in Ontario.