Cervical cancer vaccine on way

New Zealand women and girls will be able to buy a world-first vaccine to help protect themselves against cervical cancer, possibly within eight months.

CSL, the company which will supply the Gardasil vaccine injections in New Zealand, hopes the Government will license it by October.

It will cost $100 to $300 for the three-shot course.

With three-yearly cervical smears, the vaccine could become part of the protection against a disease which, although declining, is each year found in about 180 new patients and kills 60.

The vaccine protects against the human papilloma virus (HPV) strains which account for 70 per cent of cervical cancers.

Because HPV is sexually transmitted, the vaccine is most effective if given before a person becomes sexually active.

It is expected to be offered for girls as young as 11, to protect them before they first have sex and to coincide with the last of the childhood vaccinations on the national schedule.

Many parents may be surprised to have to confront one of the medical realities of their children's future sexuality so early.

In Australia this has caused controversy.

Although Prime Minister John Howard supports the vaccine, National Party Senator Barnaby Joyce has called for MPs to be allowed to debate its "social implications", the News.com.au website reported.

"There might be an overwhelming [public] backlash from people saying, 'Don't you dare put something out there that gives my 12-year-old daughter a licence to be promiscuous," he has said.

A New Zealand supporter of the vaccine says an education programme will be needed.

"I think we all need to understand this organism," said Dr Nikki Turner, director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at Auckland University.

"We need to understand cervical cancer and the implications, but the vaccine, technologically, is looking great."

Ideally the vaccine would be added to the national immunisation schedule, she said, but not until after a national discussion.

"People need to be aware of the fact that this bug, HPV, causes cervical cancer and that anybody who is sexually active is at risk of that ... It's a very common sexually transmitted virus. It's not related to promiscuity."

Catholic Bioethics Centre researcher John Kleinsman made a similar point and raised no ethical objections to vaccinating 11-year-old girls against a sexual disease.

"We recognise the severity of cervical cancer and the devastating effects it has on women."

Queensland University's Professor Ian Frazer, named 2006 Australian of the Year for his role in pioneering Gardasil since 1991, said the prospect of vaccinating girls had provoked strong views in Australia.

"That a vaccine might make people more sexually active seems quite bizarre to me. This is such a common infection, it's sort of normal."

He predicts that in the foreseeable future, more powerful HPV vaccines will be made that could almost eradicate cervical cancer.

Eighty per cent of women have an HPV infection at some point in their lives, usually without symptoms, and it usually clears up naturally.

Clinical trials involving 12,000 women showed that none given three full doses of Gardasil developed pre-cancerous changes in the cervix, compared with more than 20 in the comparison group given a placebo.

Cervical cancer vaccine

* About 180 NZ women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and 60 die from it.

* Seven out of 10 cases are caused by the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV).

* The new vaccine, which protects against HPV, will be given to girls aged 11, before they become sexually active.

* This has caused controversy overseas, including Australia, where one senator claimed the vaccine was "a licence to be promiscuous".