Schoolgirls offered cervical cancer vaccine
4 September 2008
This vaccine will save lives. I encourage everyone who is offered it to take it. 
Dawn Primarolo, Minister of State for Public Health
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Every 12 and 13 year old girl in the UK will be offered a cervical cancer vaccine when they return to school this month, under new measures from the Department of Health.
The vaccine could help prevent 70 percent of all cervical cancers - saving about 700 lives in Britain each year.
"Our policy to vaccinate girls against cervical cancer is one of the biggest public health campaigns in recent history," Dawn Primarolo, Minister of State for Public Health, told the Bupa health information team.
About 2700 women in the UK are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year. Cervical cancer affects the neck of the womb. It's the second commonest cancer in women under 35 years old. Around 1,000 women in the UK die from cervical cancer annually.
The Department of Health has selected the Cervarix vaccine manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. This vaccine targets two strains of human papillomavirus (HPV), the cause of most cervical cancers.
Cervarix is injected into the upper arm in three doses. The second injection is given a month after the first, and the third injection is given five months later.
The Department of Health say that the vaccine will be offered to all girls in the selected age group but that parents will be given the chance to opt out if they don't want their daughter to have it.
It's expected that all girls aged 12 to 17 will have been offered the vaccine by August 2009.
"This vaccine will save lives, and will reduce the number of women who need to be treated against the early stages of this disease," said Dawn Primarola. "I encourage everyone who is offered it to take it."
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