New Zealand Prime Minister Announces Funding For New HPV Vaccine Program

Main Category: Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Article Date: 06 May 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark on Friday announced a new program that will provide about $128 million over five years to vaccinate girls ages 12 to 18 against cervical cancer, the New Zealand Herald reports. As of Sept. 1, all girls born in 1990 and 1991 can receive a vaccine from their family physician, practice nurse, or at a health clinic at no cost. Beginning in 2009, the vaccine will become a routine component of the immunization schedule for girls between the ages of 12 and 13. In addition to the $128 million in new funding, Clark said that the Ministry of Health will allocate $10 million in its baseline budget for the program.

New Zealand officials said the program, which will likely use Merck's human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil, aims to vaccinate 300,000 girls and is expected to save about 30 lives annually from cervical cancer. "We also expect to see a reduction in the number of abnormal [Pap test] results, which means that fewer women will have to go through the stress of receiving an abnormal ... result, as well as of the extra tests, diagnoses and invasive procedures which can follow," Clark, Health Minister David Cunliffe and Associate Health Minister Steve Chadwick said in a statement. According to the Herald, about 180 women in New Zealand are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, and 60 die from it. However, incidence and death rates have declined since 1991, when mass screening for the disease began.

According to the Herald, Clark's Labour Party had initially decided against launching an HPV vaccine program. The "change of heart" by the government came in spite of opposition from some advocates who "expressed concern that vaccinating young girls was effectively accepting they were sexually active when they shouldn't be." Clark has said any opportunity to prevent a deadly cancer should be taken (Oliver, New Zealand Herald, 5/2).

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