Australian school girls to get free cervical cancer vaccinations
Categories: Health & safety, Development
Cervical cancer is almost always caused by exposure to HPV, a virus that is most often sexually transmitted. Cervical cancer also kills thousands of women every year around the world, and affects many more thousands of women who must undergo invasive surgery to remove it. The good news is that there is a vaccine that can immunize women from HPV, and thus drastically reduce the number of cases of cervical cancer every year. The religious nutjobs in the United States have been doing their best to prevent those vaccinations from helping the girls who need it most in this country, even trying to prevent its approval by the FDA, because, well, you know, sex is evil unless part of a traditional marriage, etc. Well, the Australians have just enacted a program that will provide up to 2 million girls and young women with free vaccinations against cervical cancer starting next April.
All girls aged 12 and 13 in their first year of high school will be offered the vaccine, which comes in three injections over seven months. The vaccine is most effective when given to girls at that age. "Catch-up" vaccinations will also be given to girls up to age 18 in schools and will be free to women up to age 26 through their doctors.
This is a positive step for Australia but programs like it should not be suppressed elsewhere because of a minority's religious fanaticism. So far, New Hampshire is the only state in the U.S. with a program to offer the vaccine for free.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Christine 11-30-2006 @ 6:42PM
Good job, Australia (as always) !!!
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Jen 11-30-2006 @ 10:05PM
I'm glad this vaccine exists because it will save lives - but I highly take offense to your describing people as "religious nutjobs". I am a woman of great faith. I believe the best way to prevent ANY sexually transmitted disease is to be in a monogomous relationship. I don't, however, belive this makes me a "NUTJOB". Why is it whenever someone suggests abstinance or monogomy as an option to preventing pregnancy or STD's, they're automatically discredited as being crazy - check the stats..these methods actually work....
http://www.youngparentsmagazine.com
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Matthew Miller 11-30-2006 @ 11:08PM
Jen -- just because some people are religious nutjobs doesn't all religious people are. And unfortunately, it's undeniable that there are religious nutjobs.
Further, abstinance and monogomy certainly are effective -- but the numbers clearly show that programs which present them as the only option are not.
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Christine 12-01-2006 @ 1:37AM
Not just that... but there are often cases where that choice is taken from a woman... and then they are caught unprotected.
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Jasmine 12-01-2006 @ 10:00AM
I think this is a fantastic idea. Being freshly out of the teen years myself at 21, married and with child...let me tell you, preaching abstinance while ignoring the fact that the majority of kids ARE going to do it, with or without your approval or preaching, is not only stupid, but it endangers your children. While I don't classify all religious people as nutjobs, I do think that anyone who denies their children the protection they need for any reason, including religious reasons is the equivilant of harming your child directly. If your message got through, they're not going to do it anyways, with or without vaccines and condoms. But, quite frankly, I'd rather my child live a long a healthy life now, than to die or have a full hysterectomy at 13 years old, because I refused to help them. Major kudos for Australia. Sometimes it amazes me that we still call America the best country in the world, when we still refuse to protect our youth because it doesn't satisfy the "good god-fearin' folk" that seem to make up the majority of our population. Yeah, when your child dies because of your religious constraints, what will you soothe yourself with? That you did right by your man-made bible? Yeah...have fun trying to sleep with that at night.
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