New Hampshire First to Offer Free Cervical Cancer Vaccine

New Hampshire is stepping up as the first state to offer a free cervical cancer vaccine to all girls between the age of 11 and 18. This is just one part of a New Hampshire state program that provides a variety of immunizations to girls for free. The funding for this program is provided by the federal government as well as various insurance companies.

Human Papilloma Virus, HPV, is the leading cause of cervical cancer, considered a "high risk" HPV infection, and is the main use for this new vaccine. It is estimated that this year over 10,000 will be infected with cervical cancer from the HPV virus, and more than 4,000 women are expected to die from it. Matter of fact, cervical cancer is the number 2 killer of cancer in women. However, cervical cancer is not the only effects from HPV that the vaccine will be effective against. Genital warts, which are "low risk" HPV infections, will also be a target for this new vaccination.

All in all, HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease (STD) in the United States. It is estimated that 6.2 million Americans become infected with HPV each year and that over half of all men and women that are sexually active become infected with HPV at some time in their life.

The name of the vaccine is Gardasil and was just approved by the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, in June of 2006. Gardasil is the first vaccine able to prevent genital warts, cervical cancer and precancerous genital lesions that are caused by the Human Papilloma Virus. It is proven effective by the FDA for females between the ages of 9 and 26.