Gates Foundation To Provide Funding For Vietnam HPV Vaccination Research Program

Main Category: Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Article Date: 09 Apr 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently agreed to provide $245,000 to Vietnam Ministry of Health's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in 2007 to 2008 for a human papillomavirus vaccination research program, the Saigon Times Daily reports (Thanh, Saigon Times Daily, 4/4). Merck's HPV vaccine Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline's experimental HPV vaccine Cervarix in clinical trials have been shown to be 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases. The global health group PATH in June 2006 launched a five-year program that is using a $27.8 million grant from the Gates Foundation to conduct research in India, Peru, Uganda and Vietnam about ways to reduce potential hurdles for distribution of HPV vaccines in developing countries (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 12/13/06). Nguyen Tran Hien, director of the institute, said about 800 girls between ages 11 and 13 would benefit from the project. Bill Gates said he expects to get support from the Vietnamese government to help provide vaccines to people, especially children. According to the Times Daily, figures show that 20.2 people for every 100,000 people in the country are living with cervical cancer (Saigon Times Daily, 4/4). Bill and Melinda Gates on Tuesday ended a three-day visit to Vietnam in which they spoke with health care officials, visited hospitals and had a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, AFP/Yahoo! News reports (AFP/Yahoo! News, 4/3).

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