Give girls cancer jabs free, says lobby

An immunisation specialist is urging the Government to subsidise a cervical cancer vaccine for girls as young as 11.

The vaccine Gardasil will be widely available from today for patients prepared to pay $450 for three injections.

But Dr Nikki Turner, the director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at Auckland University, wants the Government to pay for 11-year-old girls to receive the vaccine as part of the schedule of childhood vaccinations, which is under review.

A Health Ministry committee is assessing whether to add Gardasil and several other vaccines to the schedule, including ones designed to protect against chicken pox, rotavirus (a diarrhoea bug), pneumococcal disease and types of meningococcal disease other than the B strain.

Dr Turner said yesterday all the vaccines had been proven safe and effective.

"New Zealand has to think very hard and fast about preventive health and where these vaccines fit."

The country could do more with vaccines to prevent disease, she said.

"I think New Zealand is pathetic in how much money we put into child health and preventive health."

Dr Turner urged that Gardasil be funded for girls to receive at age 11, which was when they received other vaccines.

"If we introduce it to the private market only, it's likely to be taken up by those who can afford it and we are likely to increase our equity gap in cervical cancer. Low-income people are more likely to have cervical cancer."

A ministry spokesman said that announcements would be made this financial year on whether the vaccines being considered would be funded. If they were, they would go on the schedule in 2008.

Cervical cancer is diagnosed in around 180 women in New Zealand each year and kills about 60.

Gardasil is designed to protect against infection with four types of virus, two of which are associated with 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases.

It is licensed for use in females aged from 9 to 26.