The Urgent of Cervical Cancer Vaccines
LONDON - International health experts called on Tuesday for rapid universal access to promising but expensive cervical cancer vaccines that have the prospective to save a quarter of a million lives a year.Merck & Co. Inc.’s lately launched Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Cervarix, which is projected to be agreed next year, defend women against human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes most cases of the disease.
They are likely to be embraced in wealthy countries but uptake in the developing world - where 80 percent of cervical cancer deaths happen - is uncertain, given their high price and latent resistance to vaccinating girls aged 9 to 13 years against the sexually transmitted virus.
The call for global access came at a conference in London getting together 60 health experts from multilateral agencies, government, charities and the drug industry.
“There is usually a 15 to 20 year delay between the time that new vaccines are accepted in the West and the time they arrive at developing countries,” said Nothemba Simelela of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
“The world cannot afford to wait 20 years to begin saving women from cervical cancer.”
Death rates from the second most common female cancer are growing in the developing world, where more than 95 percent of women never have a cervical smear test.
They are likely to be embraced in wealthy countries but uptake in the developing world - where 80 percent of cervical cancer deaths happen - is uncertain, given their high price and latent resistance to vaccinating girls aged 9 to 13 years against the sexually transmitted virus.
The call for global access came at a conference in London getting together 60 health experts from multilateral agencies, government, charities and the drug industry.
“There is usually a 15 to 20 year delay between the time that new vaccines are accepted in the West and the time they arrive at developing countries,” said Nothemba Simelela of the International Planned Parenthood Federation.
“The world cannot afford to wait 20 years to begin saving women from cervical cancer.”
Death rates from the second most common female cancer are growing in the developing world, where more than 95 percent of women never have a cervical smear test.
Labels: cancer
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