This article is from page 11 of the 2008-08-12 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
that Cervarix has been tested for six and a half years and 100 per cent coverage has been detected.
The trial has now been extended to nine and a half years.
While Cervarix acts agains two HPV strains – HPV 16 and 18, Gardasil acts against four, which in- clude HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18.
Cancer of the neck of the womb is diagnosed in almost 200 women in Ireland every year. Last year four women in Clare were diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Clare is one of only three counties in the country that has a cervical cancer-screening programme.
Some 70 women nationally die
from the disease annually. If caught in the early stages, cervical cancer has a five-year survival rate of 80 per COMO) mater low
Because of the very strong link be- tween HPV and cervical cancer, giv- ing a vaccine to a woman before she eexeKey eaten wm DONC Kore mmr eI OOM A SCM BD MEK I OT-FS the potential to reduce the number of women at risk of cervical cancer.
HPV vaccines must therefore be given before the recipient becomes sexually active and contracts the vi- Mele
Research suggests the average age at which Irish women become sexu- ally active is between 17 and 23.
A full vaccination against HPV re- quires three separate injections over six months.
As with most vaccines, a local reac- tion at the injection site 1s quite com- mon. Headache, fatigue and tummy upset have been reported following HPV immunisation.
In the US, a possible association between HPV vaccination and a rare neurological condition is being in- vestigated. Three deaths were closely related in time to immunisation with a HPV vaccine, but no link could be found between the girls’ deaths and vaccine administration.