Sunday, 28 June 2009

Quick hit: HPV vaccine uptake v low

From the Herald on Sunday:
Young women shun Gardasil
Less than a third of New Zealand schoolgirls have received the controversial cervical cancer vaccine, as health concerns persist around the $177 million programme.

The Labour Government launched the Gardasil programme in September last year, with the aim of immunising 300,000 Kiwi schoolgirls over the next two years.

Latest figures show 26 per cent of 12 to 16-year-olds and 35 per cent of 17 and 18-year-olds have received the first of three Gardasil doses.

One advocate conceded the numbers are "very low"...
Click through for the whole article.

Now I've included the title (in bold) because it ticks me off. Signed parental consent is necessary for most schoolgirls to access this vaccination programme. It may well be that the so-called shunning is not originating with those who would be vaccinated but with their parents. So perhaps the heading could reflect that?

In related news I did get a response to my OIA asking for the list of schools who declined to offer the vaccine, and I hope to blog about it when I get time to read it properly.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are looking for the book “The HPV Vaccine Controversy: Sex, Cancer, God and Politics” authored by Shobha S. Krishnan, M.D, Barnard college, Columbia University. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA, June 16th 2009) calls the book superb and a terrific contribution to the field. The book educates both professionals and the public about HPV infections, the diseases they cause and the role/ controversies surrounding the new vaccines. It is written without the influence of any pharmaceutical companies or special interest groups and is available at amazon.com, Barnes and Noble .com and through international distributors. Link to the book: http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C35011.aspx