Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Lawmakers endorse HPV vaccination bill
The legislation would require that all girls be vaccinated before entering sixth grade.
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From The Roanoke Times
The issue
- The General Assembly is considering bills that would require parents of fifth-grade girls to have their daughters vaccinated against HPV, human papillomavirus.
What you need to know
- HPV can cause cervical cancer.
- The vaccine is administered in three doses at a cost of $96 per dose, or $288 for the complete vaccination.
- Parents unable to afford the shots or not covered by health insurance will have the cost picked up by the state or federal governments.
- The Food and Drug Administration in June approved use of the vaccine, Gardasil, for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26. It works by preventing infection by four strains of HPV.
RICHMOND -- Girls entering the sixth grade in Virginia would be vaccinated against a virus closely linked to cervical cancer under legislation endorsed by a House of Delegates committee Tuesday.
House Bill 2035 would require girls to be vaccinated for the human papillomavirus before entering the sixth grade. HPV is transmitted by sexual or skin-to-skin contact and can lead to the development of cervical cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration last year approved a vaccine for HPV and recommended that females between the ages of 9 and 26 receive it. The vaccine immunizes against types of HPV that can cause cervical cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.
At least 80 percent of women acquire some form of HPV by the age of 50, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"This is a very exciting time for us, and for our daughters and for our granddaughters, because we have the opportunity now to eliminate cervical cancer in our lifetime," said Del. Jeion Ward, D-Hampton, a co-sponsor of the legislation.
The House Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee voted 18-2 in support of the bill and referred it to the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee for further consideration. Del. Phil Hamilton, R-Newport News, the chairman of the Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee, is the chief sponsor of the legislation.
The bill would add the HPV vaccine to other required immunizations for school children. The legislation would take effect Oct. 1, 2008, meaning girls entering the sixth grade in the fall of 2009 would need the HPV vaccine.
The vaccination, delivered in three installments, costs $288, according to estimates by the state Department of Planning and Budget.
As with all required immunizations, parents will be given the choice of having their child vaccinated at a physician's office and paying for it themselves or by using their insurance coverage, or if they can't afford that or don't have insurance, at the local health department for no charge. Of an estimated 47,000 girls who would be vaccinated in 2009, for instance, the state expects 30 percent to be referred to local health departments. Most of those children would be vaccinated using federal funds. The state expects to pick up the tab for an estimated 4,000 girls, according to the planning and budget department.
A similar bill (SB 1230) sponsored by state Sen. Janet Howell, D-Fairfax County, projects the cost of providing the vaccine to those 4,000 sixth-graders at $1.3 million in the first year the law takes effect. Howell's bill is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Education and Health Committee on Thursday morning.
The HPV vaccine Gardasil is administered in three doses over a six-month period. As with other immunizations, a parent or guardian could get an exemption by stating religious objections or producing a physician's statement that the vaccine would cause medical problems.
Some religious conservatives have questioned proposals to make HPV vaccinations mandatory for school-age children, arguing that it could harm efforts to promote sexual abstinence.
Cecelia Boardman, a gynecological oncologist at Virginia Commonwealth University's Massey Cancer Center, said even safe sex practices cannot guarantee protection against HPV because the virus can be transferred by skin-to-skin contact. About 30 percent of cervical cancers will not be prevented by the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Boardman called cervical cancer "a completely preventable disease" that could be dramatically limited with the vaccine.
Gov. Tim Kaine has proposed spending $1.4 million in the current budget to supply local health departments with HPV vaccine for girls who are not eligible for a federally funded vaccination program or lack private health insurance coverage for the immunization.
Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said the governor has not taken a position on legislation that would provide the vaccine to sixth-graders.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling threw his support behind Kaine's efforts to increase funding for the vaccine Tuesday.
"Anything we can do at the state level to make it more available to those who can't get it or to those who can't afford it is a good thing," Bolling said in a news conference.
Bolling also pointed out that Gardasil is manufactured by Merck & Co., which has an Elkton facility that handles part of the vaccine's manufacturing process. "The fact of the matter is it's an exciting development."
