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New
Vaccine for Girls Prevents Cervical Cancer |
Posted:
7.03.06
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In a development health officials are calling a historic breakthrough,
girls and women aged 11 to 26 will soon receive a vaccine against
one form of deadly cancer.
Printer-friendly versions: PDF
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 The
new vaccine, Gardasil, protects against four strains of the human
papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted disease.
An estimated half of all women have been exposed to the virus,
which, for unknown reasons can cause cancer of the cervix, the
narrow part of the uterus just above the vagina.
Over 9,000 women in the United States contract cervical cancer
each year and about 3,700 die.
Pre-cancerous changes in the cervix can be detected by a Pap
smear test, but many poor women or women without health insurance
don't get the test every year as recommended.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the immunization program at the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called Gardasil "a
breakthrough for women's health."
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What is the
vaccine? |
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 The
vaccine, created by the drug company Merck, is made up of virus-like
particles that trigger a woman's immune system to react as if
she's been infected. The immune reaction prevents the changes
in the cervix and can eventually develop into cancer.
The U.S. Health Department has created a "catch-up"
campaign focusing on girls from 13 to 18. Going forward, it will
seek to vaccinate all 11 and 12 year olds routinely.
However, Gardasil is supposed to be given as three shots over
six months, and while that's the way many infant vaccinations
work, government officials worry it will be harder to get preteens
in the doctor's office that frequently.
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Protecting
poor girls and women |
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 Another
obstacle is Gardasil's price: $360 for the three-shot regimen.
"This vaccine will be more expensive than all other childhood
vaccines put together," said John Schiller, a senior investigator
at the National Cancer Institute, according to the Associated
Press. "How do you make sure it gets to the poor women who
need it the most?"
In the United States, girls without insurance should be able
to get the vaccine through Vaccines for Children, a government
program that distributes nearly half of all vaccines.
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Conservative
concerns |
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 There
are also concerns among some conservative and religious groups
that the vaccine will encourage girls to have sex because it prevents
a sexually transmitted disease.
"You can't catch the virus, you have to go out and get it
with sexual behavior," said Linda Klepacki of Focus on the
Family, a conservative Christian group based in Colorado Springs,
in The New York Times. "We can prevent it by having the best
public health method, and that's not having sex before marriage."
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Should the
vaccine be mandatory? |
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State health organizations are now considering whether to make
the vaccine mandatory, but officials say the nature of the virus
complicates the debate.
"Because it's a sexually transmitted infection, it's going
to be a somewhat different situation than for other vaccines,
such as chicken pox and so on, that can be transmitted through
something as simple as a sneeze," said Dr. Elizabeth Garner
of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston in a June 9 NewsHour
interview.
"Human papillomavirus is not transmitted that way, and so
it might be a little bit more difficult to make the argument that
it needs to be mandatory for school attendance."
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Compiled by Leah Clapman for NewsHour Extra
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