New Zealand
schools refuse Gardasil vaccination
AAP
May 04, 2009 12:53pm
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,25425496-38196,00.html?from=public_rss
AUSTRALIAN cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil is facing resistance in New Zealand
where dozens of schools have refused to take part in the national immunisation
program.
Almost 80 schools across the country have opted not to give their female
students the vaccine, designed by Queensland scientist and former Australian of
the Year Ian Frazer.
It has been widely adopted in Australia, where it is given freely through all
high schools to girls aged 12 and over.
But it has been the subject of controversy in New Zealand, with moral
campaigners objecting to vaccinating girls against a cancer they can get only
through sexual activity.
This is despite expectations that the drug, which blocks against two strains of
human papilloma virus that cause cervical cancer, will halve the cancer's death
rate.
New Zealand's Ministry of Health revealed today that 78 schools - five per cent
of the total - had chosen not to take part in the program.
Reasons were not given but it is believed many religious schools had refused on
moral grounds, while other institutions did not have enough good information
about the benefits of the vaccine.
"Common reasons cited for declining the vaccination are around the age and the
sexual naivete of the girl and the duration of the protection,'' a report
produced by one of the country's district health boards said.
Others may have been concerned about high rates of minor adverse reactions to
the injection.
About 80 reactions have been reported since the vaccine was licensed in New
Zealand last year, most involving nausea, 10 cases of fainting and one report of
"mild anaphylaxis (allergic reaction) with rapid recovery''.