DHB casts vaccination programme net wider

A Nelson Marlborough health board vaccination programme will target cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil at all girls under 19, including school-leavers.

NMDHB immunisation project manager Peter Bassett said the health board wanted to make sure that girls who were not in school and thus not eligible for the school-based programme received the vaccination.

Gardasil provides immunity against the common, sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV), several types of which cause most cervical cancer.

Mr Bassett said the vaccine reduced the number of women who needed treatment and investigations for abnormal smears, and also saved lives. For "a variety of reasons", only about half of eligible young women in schools had taken up the vaccination programme this year, but he expected that rate to increase next year.

"The concern is that there were some young women who have left school, have changed their minds and now want the vaccination," he said.

Those young women could receive their free vaccination course from a family doctor, practice nurse or health clinic. The three jabs were given in the upper arm over six months.

From next year, girls in years 8, 10, 11 and 12 will be eligible to be immunised through the school-based vaccination campaign, and from 2011 it will be offered on an ongoing basis from year 8.

For more information: 0800 IMMUNE or www.moh.govt.nz.