W.Va.:Cancer vaccine required for girls?

W.Va.:Cancer vaccine required for girls?

	Published : Tue, 16 Jan 2007 22:41 By : Agencies Print this Story

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AFX) - Girls entering the sixth grade would be required to get vaccinations guarding against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer under a legislative proposal aimed at cutting West Virginia's high mortality rate from the disease.

Delegate Bonnie Brown, D-Kanawha, promoted legislation Tuesday that would mandate vaccinations against the human papilloma virus, known as HPV, which causes cervical cancer.

According to a study released Tuesday by Women in Government, a nonprofit, bipartisan organization of female state legislators, West Virginia's cervical cancer fatality rate is the second-highest in the nation, behind only Washington, D.C. Four women per 100,000 die of cervical cancer in the state every year, according to the study.

'It is important that as many girls as possible have access to this lifesaving technology,' Brown said at a news conference at the state Capitol.

Dr. Kerry Gateley, director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, said he hopes the Legislature will mandate the vaccinations and provide county health departments with the necessary resources to implement the program.

'I'm very eager, from a public health standpoint to get out and start giving this vaccine to people,' Gateley said. 'I just need some resources.'

Resources will likely be a central question for the legislation. The vaccines cost $120 per dose, and the course of treatment requires three doses, according to Gateley, whose two daughters have received vaccinations.

This year, there are 10,235 sixth-grade girls in West Virginia, said Department of Education spokeswoman Liza Cordeiro. At $360 per course of treatment, that's a bill of more than $3.6 million.

'It's not in the budget,' Brown said. She said the state Public Employees Insurance Agency and Medicaid pay for the vaccinations, and that some private insurers are looking at doing so.

'Those are details that are not in the bill, but we'll have to work through them,' she said.

First lady Gayle Manchin supports the legislation, which is similar to proposals recently made in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

Calls to state politicians in Maryland and Virginia who proposed similar legislation were not immediately returned.

Delegate Margaret Staggers, D-Fayette, a physician, has signed on as an early co-sponsor of the bill. The existence of a vaccine to prevent cancer is a rare medical opportunity, she said.

'This is the first time since polio and smallpox that we can think of a disease we can do away with, maybe not in our lifetime, but in our daughters' lifetimes,' she said.

The vaccine, produced by Merck & Co., prevents infections from the sexually transmitted virus, which can cause cervical cancer, genital lesions and genital warts.

About 6 million Americans are diagnosed annually with HPV, making it among the most common sexually transmitted diseases. The American Cancer Society estimates that cervical cancer will be diagnosed in 9,700 women nationwide this year and that 3,700 will die. About 70 percent of cervical cancer cases are caused by HPV.

While men and women are infected with HPV, cervical cancer is the most serious consequence, and the vaccine is recommended only for women and girls.

The vaccine was approved in June for girls as young as 9 and a government advisory panel later recommended that the vaccine be given before girls become sexually active.

Some critics have objected to the use of the vaccine so early because it could be seen as condoning sexual activity by very young girls.