Vaccination rates in the Netherlands are improving, with the number of girls being inoculated against the HPV virus going up sharply, the public health institute RIVM said on Thursday.

In addition, there has been the first rise in seven years in the number of babies being given the combined mumps, measles and German measles vaccine, the RIVM said.

Just 59% of teenage girls born in 2005 were vaccinated against HPV, which causes cervical cancer. But 72% of girls born in 2006 have had the vaccination, the figures show.

‘We are working hard to improve the rates and this is an important signal that things are moving in the right direction,’ junior health minister Paul Blokhuis said in a briefing to MPs.

Other vaccination take-up rates are unchanged.