The Jab That Can Stop Cancer

[StarsOfCCTV]

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.

[Abigail]

I've read about these jabs and about the controversy surrounding them. I don't understand why some people think that giving a 12 year old a jab to prevent cervical cancer would encourage under age sex. I'm not sure many 12 year olds know where their cervix is.

I'd have the jab if it meant that I wouldn't get cervical cancer. I'd also make sure my 12 year old daughter got it.

BTW, I won't be watching the program. Dispatches slates anything and everything it can and is very discriminatory.

[Abbie]

Thats what I would to know, why 12 year olds?

[di marco]

i think its cos after that age some teenagers have already been sexually active and will have a chance of having it or something. i cant remember exactly it said on the radio about it

[Abbie]

Yeah I can see it from that point of view, but I suppose I just thought they would have offered it to older women

[di marco]

Yeah I can see it from that point of view, but I suppose I just thought they would have offered it to older women

like all things though, it gets offered to prevent the disease so will be given to people who havent yet got to the age where most people get it. i was in the age where most people are likely to get it (think it started at 14 or 16)

[Abigail]

I think its the HPV (human papiloma virus) that it protects from. HPV is also known as herpes, which a high proportion of adults have. Herpes can be sexually transmitted or passed on through physical contact with cold sores. Once you have the herpes virus, you have it for life. Hence the reason why the jab wouldn't work for older women.

[StarsOfCCTV]

I watched it and thought it was quite fair. Showed both sides of the story. Good programme.