Kansas City Foundation Awards Grant To Provide No-Cost HPV Vaccine

Main Category: Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 28 May 2007 - 9:00 PDT

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The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City on Tuesday announced that it has awarded $2 million to the city's medical community to make the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil available at no cost to 5,000 low-income girls and women in the city between ages nine and 26, the Kansas City Star reports (Spivak, Kansas City Star, 5/22).

Gardasil in clinical trials has been shown to be 100% effective in preventing infection with strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases, and about 99% effective in preventing HPV strains 6 and 11, which together with HPV strains 16 and 18 cause about 90% of genital wart cases, among women not already infected with these strains. FDA in June 2006 approved Gardasil for sale and marketing to girls and women ages nine to 26, and CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices later that month voted unanimously to recommend that girls ages 11 and 12 receive the vaccine, which is given in a three-shot series (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/18). CDC has added Gardasil to its Vaccines for Children Program, which provides no-cost immunizations to children ages nine to 18 covered by Medicaid, Alaska Native and American Indian children, and some uninsured and underinsured children (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/8).

The vaccine will be available on a voluntary basis beginning in August at many health departments and clinics across the Kansas City area, the Star reports. The Kansas City grant comes after an $11 million Missouri Foundation for Health program was created to cover Gardasil vaccinations for the eastern and southern parts of Missouri, the Star reports.

"The medical community is greatly excited about this drug, and we want to make sure the uninsured and the medical indigent have access to it," Steve Roling, president of the Kansas City health care foundation, said. Daryl Lynch, chief of adolescent medicine at Children's Mercy Hospital, said that the health officials are trying to "get parents to understand this is a cancer-prevention program." He added, "If we can get to the causes of cancer, that's phenomenal" (Kansas City Star, 5/22).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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