The association “HPV-Impfung jetzt! Aufklärungsverein zu STDs” was founded in May 2023 by three students of the University of Applied Arts and has since been run by them. The core team consists of Paula Netzl (treasurer), Lili Pick (secretary & memberships), Tim Ficht (projects) and Florian Boschek (chair).
The association was founded out of an initiative and petition that was realised by Florian Boschek at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The petition and open letter with the same name as the founded NGO has been conceptualised and realised within the realms of the seminar “Public Interventions” that had the aim to spark controversy or awareness on certain topics. When the petition launched in June 2022, the existing Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination program in Austria was only available free of cost between the 9th and 12th birthday, thus diverging with the medical recommendations by the Austrian national vaccination council, that recommended the HPV vaccine with urgency up to the 30th birthday.
The petition was lead by the Initiativegroup Alpbach Vienna and the Austrian National Students Union, and was supported by medical organisations, political youth groups – the petition and open letter can still be found here (in German).
Only six months after the start of the petition the first extension of the HPV vaccination program was announced by the then Austrian Minister of Health Johannes Rauch and Austrian Minister of Defence Klaudia Tanner. The extension came into force in February 2023 and young people up to the 21st birthday were from then on eligible to get vaccinated against HPV.
We kept on being persistent, met important policy makers within the Austrian health care system and managed to meet up with the Austrian Minister of Health Johannes Rauch in November of 2023, to officially hand him over our demand to extend the HPV program, and follow the recommendations of the National Vaccination Council.
Our NGO hosted the International HPV Awareness Day 2024, where we finally were able to announce a temporary catch-up HPV vaccination program up to the 30th birthday. At our press conference the Minister of Health, representatives of the Austrian federal states and the social insurance agencies joined us, to communicate the good news on the 4th of March 2024.
(Rihab Toumi, Peter Hacker, Sarah Rossmann, Florian Boschek, Johannes Rauch, Andreas Huss), c) Studio Zucker
The temporary extension of the HPV vaccination program will last from 1st July 2024 until the 31st of December 2025, and will then be evaluated by the Ministry of Health to consider a possible continuation. The HPV vaccines are available in all official vaccination facilities and all physicians, that take part in the children vaccination program. All details about the HPV vaccination can be found on the HPV-Impfung jetzt! website.