The Jab That Can Stop Cancer
The Jab That Can Stop Cancer - Monday 21 July 2008 08:00 PM
In the next few weeks every girl aged 12 to 13 in Britain will be offered a vaccination to help protect her against cervical cancer. It's the first time a jab has been developed that can prevent a cancer. This vaccine works by stopping women contracting the virus that causes cervical cancer. But while some hail it as a medical breakthrough, it has provoked controversy.
Mother to two girls, journalist Jane Moore sets out to find answers to the questions every parent will ask before deciding whether to allow their daughters to have the vaccination. Will it work, is it necessary - and is it safe? The Jab That Can Stop Cancer sets out some of the key facts about the sexually-transmitted virus that causes the cancer and examines how the Government arrived at its decision to give it to all girls.
And as this new vaccine is the most expensive the NHS has ever bought, Jane Moore investigates whether the new mass inoculation is value for money.
The effects of cervical cancer can be devastating. Dispatches follows one of the youngest women in the UK to be diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer as she prepares for her wedding day. At just 22 years old she may only have weeks to live - for her and her loved ones the diagnosis has been shattering and may be one she could have avoided, had the vaccine been available to her as a young girl.
And yet, in a trial vaccination programme in Manchester this year, nearly a third of parents refused permission for their daughter to have the jab. As a comparatively new drug, they tell Jane they are worried about its safety and feel their daughters are too young to be concerned about contracting a sexually-transmitted virus. Jane investigates the safety and efficacy of the drug and examines concerns that it will undermine the life-saving screening that detects three quarters of cases at the pre-cancerous stage.
And while cervical cancer is potentially a killer, Dispatches examines the cost of the vaccine versus the amount of lives it may save - hearing from key NHS policy makers, the pharmaceutical company that developed the vaccine and public health experts who question whether it is the best use of NHS resources.
Jane heads to the US where the vaccine has been offered to 12-year-old girls for the past couple of years and examines the marketing techniques employed by pharmaceutical companies to persuade parents to pay for it. Back in the UK Dispatches reveals how these same campaigns have been used here.
