On Saturday, October 10, families in Hall County can walk into District 2 Public Health in Gainesville between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. and leave with the HPV vaccine, a set of screening results, and a referral with a provider already attached to it. Everything on the schedule costs nothing. Spanish-speaking staff are on site for all four hours.
District 2 Public Health handles vaccination registration and vaccinates everyone who qualifies, starting at age 9. Screenings cover blood pressure, body mass index, and blood sugar by finger stick, with nutrition guidance attached. A retinopathy exam checks the eyes for diabetes-related damage, with a referral for follow-up care. HIV, AIDS, and STD testing is confidential and comes with referral and linkage to a provider. District 2 runs maternal health education. Community ambassadors from HHCGA and the American Cancer Society run the cervical and prostate cancer education tables, with screening and referral attached. Families take home a fingertip pulse oximeter, step counters, first aid kits, and hand sanitizer from the American Cancer Society.
Breast and cervical cancer screening works on a different model that day. Those are referrals. A prescription is written on site, a provider is named, and the screening itself happens later at the facility that performs it. No mammogram is given on October 10.
Georgia teenagers start the HPV vaccine series at a rate slightly above the national one. In 2025, 78.2 percent of Georgia adolescents aged 13 to 17 had received at least one dose, against 77.7 percent nationally. Completion is where the two separate. Georgia finished the year at 59.2 percent up to date on the series, against 63.4 percent nationally and against the Healthy People 2030 target of 80 percent.
The same survey asked the same Georgia teenagers about other vaccines. Meningococcal coverage came back at 93.6 percent. Tdap came back at 88.4 percent. Those adolescents are reaching a clinic and sitting through a visit. The HPV series is the one they do not finish.
CDC pooled five survey years, 2018 through 2022, and reported that 79.6 percent of Hispanic adolescents in Georgia had started the HPV series and 63.2 percent had completed it. Both figures lead every other group in the state. White non-Hispanic teenagers started at 68.4 percent and completed at 53.8 percent. Black non-Hispanic teenagers started at 72.7 percent and completed at 53.8 percent. Hispanic families in Georgia are already saying yes to this vaccine more often than their neighbors are.
The loss arrives further along the path. Hispanic women are diagnosed with cervical cancer at a rate 36 percent higher than White women, and 69 percent of Hispanic women aged 25 to 65 are current on cervical cancer screening against 80 percent of White women, both figures from the American Cancer Society's 2024 to 2026 report. Georgia carries a cervical cancer incidence of 7.7 per 100,000 against a national 7.0, which places it among the 15 highest states. Insurance is the other lever. Georgia teenagers with any Medicaid coverage started the series at 76.7 percent, and uninsured Georgia teenagers started at 43.1 percent. In Hall County, 17.0 percent of residents under 65 carry no health insurance at all.
October 10 is built for that stretch of the path. The vaccine goes in the arm on site. The screening referral goes into a hand with a provider already named on it. The conversation happens in Spanish when Spanish is the family's language, which in Hall County covers a great deal of ground: 31.1 percent of the county's 226,568 residents are Hispanic or Latino, and 29.1 percent of residents aged 5 and older speak a language other than English at home.
Georgia has marked HPV Awareness Day for years, and every published edition has been a webinar. The 2024 and 2025 events were professional education sessions co-hosted by the Georgia Cancer Control Consortium's HPV Cancer Free Georgia workgroup with Augusta University and Cancer Pathways, delivered virtually with continuing education credits and posted as recordings afterward. The 2023 edition drew 272 participants, about half of them clinicians. October 10 moves the observance into a room that has families in it.
District 2 Public Health covers 13 counties across northeast Georgia and has not published an HPV event before. Physicians, nurses, and medical students from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University are volunteering their time, alongside pharmacy students from the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy. Nationally, adolescents in mostly rural areas trail those in urban principal cities by 12.0 percentage points on first-dose coverage, and rural northeast Georgia is the geography District 2 works in every day.
Questions about the event, about who qualifies for the vaccine, or about what a screening referral involves go through the form on this page. It reaches the HHCGA team directly. The QR code printed on the event flyer leads to this page.
About 49,900 HPV-associated cancers are diagnosed in the United States each year, and the 9-valent vaccine could prevent roughly 36,400 of them. What October 10 produces, counted in doses given and referrals actually filled, is the number that decides how large the next one gets.
District 2 Public Health handles registration on site and vaccinates everyone who qualifies, starting at age 9.
No. Every service listed is at no cost and the event is open to everyone.
No. Breast and cervical cancer screening are handled as referrals. A prescription is written on site and a provider is named, and the screening itself happens later at the facility that performs it.
Yes. Spanish-speaking staff are on site for all four hours.
Blood pressure, body mass index, and blood sugar by finger stick, with nutrition guidance. A retinopathy exam checks the eyes for diabetes-related damage, with a referral for follow-up care. HIV, AIDS, and STD testing is confidential and comes with referral and linkage to a provider. Cervical and prostate cancer education includes screening and referral.
A fingertip pulse oximeter, step counters, first aid kits, and hand sanitizer, from the American Cancer Society.
District 2 Public Health, 1280 Athens Street, Gainesville, GA 30507, on Saturday, October 10, 2026, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Use the form on this page. Every message is labeled HPV Awareness Day, October 10, and reaches the HHCGA team.
Convened by Hall County, Georgia, District 2 Public Health, HPV Cancer Free Georgia, and the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia. In partnership with the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy and the American Cancer Society. Student volunteers from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy.
© 2026 Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia. All rights reserved.
This article, including its text, translations, graphics, and any accompanying materials, is the intellectual property of the Hispanic Health Coalition of Georgia. Please contact HHCGA before reproducing, distributing, republishing, translating, adapting, rewriting, or creating derivative works from this material, in whole or in part, by any means. We share our work readily and grant permission often. We ask only that you reach out first, so that credit stays accurate and the health information reaches people unchanged. Requests: info@hhcga.org.
Send a question about HPV Awareness Day on October 10. Your message goes straight to the HHCGA team.
Every message is labeled HPV Awareness Day, October 10, so it reaches the right person on the HHCGA team.
On October 10 in Gainesville, families can get the HPV vaccine, on-site screenings, and a referral with a provider already attached to it. Everything is at no cost, and Spanish-speaking staff are there all four hours.
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