KEY POINTS:
A widespread vaccination programme to guard against cervical cancer is about to start, with Prime Minister Helen Clark today announcing Government funding of $164.2 million over the next five years.
The programme will be offered free to 300,000 women aged 12 to 18 years from this September.
The vaccine - likely to be Gardasil - targets human papilloma virus (HPV), a common sexually transmitted infection linked with cervical cancer, genital warts and some other cancers.
Helen Clark, Health Minister David Cunliffe and Associate Health Minister Steve Chadwick said the programme was expected to save around 30 lives annually.
"We also expect to see a reduction in the number of abnormal smear results, which means that fewer women will have to go through the stress of receiving an abnormal smear result, as well as of the extra tests, diagnoses, and invasive procedures which can follow," they said in a statement.
On top of the $164.2 million in new money, the Ministry of Health will spend up to another $13 million from within its baseline to the programme, making the total five year investment around $177 million.
Helen Clark indicated her strong interest in a vaccination programme last year after Labour had previously decided against giving government funding for one.
The change of heart comes despite some moral campaigners having expressed concern that vaccinating young girls was effectively accepting they were sexually active when they shouldn't be.
But Helen Clark has said that any opportunity to prevent a deadly cancer should be taken, and this year's Budget round appears to have approved funding for the vaccine.
From September 1, all young women born in 1990 and 1991 can make an appointment and begin HPV immunisation from their family doctor or practice nurse or health clinic.
From 2009, the vaccine will be incorporated into the routine immunisation schedule for year 8 girls (age 12-13).
Cervical cancer is diagnosed in about 180 women every year and kills about 60.
The incidence and death rates have fallen since mass screening for the disease began in 1991.
That screening will continue and the vaccination programme will work in conjunction with it.
The cervical cancer move is the first major pre-Budget announcement from the Government. The Budget will be presented on May 22.
The vaccination programme was tipped in the Herald last month, and the Ministry of Health has been in negotiations with makers of vaccines which target strains of HPV associated with 70 per cent of cervical cancers.
Australia has a government-funded cervical cancer vaccine in its national immunisation programme, and Helen Clark's public request for urgent advice on a vaccine came after the British Government decided lastyear to go ahead with a vaccination programme.
- With NZPA
