Cervical cancer vaccine plan wins preliminary approval in Missouri Senate

Kansas City, MO

Thousands of parents would receive information about the availability of a cervical cancer vaccine under a plan that received preliminary approval Tuesday in the Senate.

The proposal, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jolie Justus of Kansas City, would require state health officials to distribute the information to the parents of all girls entering the sixth grade in Missouri public schools.

The plan represents a major compromise between health advocates seeking to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer and religious conservatives who feared that the vaccine could lead to increased promiscuity among teen-agers.

The original proposals introduced last year would have required the immunization of 11-year-old girls against the human papilloma virus, just as children are now required to be vaccinated against polio, mumps, tetanus and other diseases.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine in 2006, finding that it was effective in blocking four strains of the virus that cause some 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts. But because the papilloma virus is transmitted by sexual contact, many conservatives objected to the treatment. More >>

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