Has the Government made the right choice of vaccines?
The Department of Health has just announced that it has chosen Cervarix as the cervical cancer vaccine which will be made available to girls aged 12-13 from September. The vaccine protects against cervical cancer and pre-cancerous cell changes in the cervix caused by HPV viruses. However many organisations are questioning whether Cervarix is the right choice, as although it will guard against the two strains of the HPV virus which cause 70% of cases of cervical cancer, it doesn't also offer protection against genital warts, which affects around 80,000 people a year, which the vaccine Gardasil does. Jane will be discussing this with Dr Claudia Estcourt, Senior Clinical lecturer in Sexual Health & HIV at Barts and the London Queen Mary's School of Medicine and Dentistry and on the Board of the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV.
