Vaccines group to buy cervical cancer shot, as long as it’s cheap and countries can deliver it
A global vaccines group said Thursday it was working to buy shots to protect up to 2 million women and girls in poor countries from cervical cancer.
After a meeting in Bangladesh this week, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation said women and girls in nine developing countries might be immunized against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer, by 2015.
The group, also known as the GAVI Alliance, could not immediately name the countries likely to get the vaccines. It said buying the injections depends on whether it can negotiate a reasonable price from manufacturers and whether countries can prove they can actually deliver the shots.
At the meeting, GAVI also said it would consider investing in hundreds of millions of shots against the rubella virus, or German measles, which can be dangerous for pregnant women and children.
The GAVI Alliance includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the vaccine industry and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among others.
Nina Schwalbe, the alliance’s managing director of policy and performance, said the HPV vaccine is critical to women and girls in developing countries because they often don’t get cervical cancer screening or treatment.
“The vaccine is their only hope,” she said.