Head start for Scots in £64m race to beat cervical cancer

Published on Tuesday 8 April 2008 14:26

A VACCINATION scheme to protect girls against cervical cancer will cost £64 million over the next three years, it was revealed today.

Public health minister Shona Robison described the initiative – which is being brought in a year ahead of the rest of the UK – as being "one of the biggest and most complex immunisation programmes" ever in Scotland.

In the next two years alone, 180,000 girls will be offered the vaccine. Ms Robison said the scheme had the "potential to deliver tremendous health benefits for future generations of young women".

The vaccine is designed to protect against the two types of HPV (human papilloma virus) that cause some 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer. The SNP pledged to make the vaccine available as part of its election manifesto.

The immunisation programme will get under way at the start of September, with the injection being offered to girls and women aged under 18 on September 1 this year.

Ms Robison announced that the routine immunisation would take place when girls were in their second year of high school.

In addition, there will be a catch-up programme, with girls offered the injection when they are in fifth or sixth year, along with others who have already left school.

Health boards across Scotland will be given an extra 1.5 million in 2008-09 in recognition of the scale and complexity of the vaccine programme.

Ms Robison said: "This is one of the biggest and most complex immunisation programmes ever undertaken in Scotland.

"But it has potential to deliver tremendous health benefits for future generations of young women, offering them protection against the virus responsible for almost three-quarters of cervical cancers.

"That's why we've accepted the recommendations of the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation and are implementing the routine immunisation programme alongside a catch-up campaign for older girls."

The minister added: "We're also acting quickly – a year ahead of the rest of the UK – to begin the catch-up process, ensuring that as many young women as possible receive the protection this vaccine can offer."

The HPV vaccine protects women against two particular strains of the virus – known as types 16 and 18 – which are responsible for about 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases.

In Scotland, the lifetime risk of a woman developing cervical cancer is one in 124.

There were 102 deaths from the disease in Scotland in 2004, with 282 new cases also diagnosed that year.