Marshalls Launches Nationwide Anti-Cancer Vaccine Drive
The United States government is funding vaccines for nationwide drive in the Marshall Islands to immunize young women against cervical cancer.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is providing the $4.5 million cost of the human genital papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines needed for the estimated 15,000 women in the 12-26 year age group in the Marshall Islands.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Chaine is also working with other US-affiliated islands to provide the newly developed HPV vaccine.
The Marshall Islands is the first of the six U.S.-affiliated islands in the Pacific to plan nationwide use of the HPV vaccine for young women in the
12-26 age group.
HPV vaccines were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June 2006. The Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the U.S., is now promoting HPV vaccines for school-age girls.
The Marshall Islands Ministry of Health will start conducting HPV vaccinations in May, using Mother's Day to launch the nationwide campagin, said Minister of Health Amenta Matthew Monday.
The drug costs about $120 for each dose and three shots over a six-month period are needed for it to be effective.
The vaccine prevents certain types of genital warts that are a leading cause of cervical cancer in women.
Matthew said that cervical cancer is the second leading type of cancer in the Marshall Islands.
Matthew said the aim is to get women in this high-risk group fully immunized through this campaign, and then in following years, provide the vaccine to all 12-year-old girls each year.
The remote and difficult to reach outer islands are a challenge for this campaign, she said. Public Health nurses will have a relatively easy time distributing the vaccines to young women in the urban centers of Majuro and Ebeye, where two-thirds of the population lives.
The vaccine, Gardasil®, protects against four HPV types, which together cause 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts, according to the CDC.
The new HPV vaccine is a "breakthrough drug" that took 10 years to develop, Chaine said.
In addition to the Marshall Islands, Chaine is working with health officials in the Federated States of Micronesia, which is expected to follow the Marshall Islands in implementing a nationwide HPV immunization drive.
