12-Year-Old Girls Across Europe and the States Set to Get Cancer Vaccination

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The jab which will prove to be the first vaccination of it's kind to work against a cancer should come into UK schools for girls aged between 12 and 13 very soon.

A leading government panel has already given the vaccination the seal of approval, but is yet to decide if there is sufficient finances to back the project. Until then, the subject will remain "in principle."

However, on the northern side of the border in Scotland, the Executive has already given the financial nod and will be planning on bringing in the vaccination into Scottish schools by the end of next year.

He said,

"It is our intention for funding for this to be included in our forthcoming spending review and we will aim to implement by autumn 2008. It will be a big, long-term investment," he said. "The main benefits won't be seen until decades down the line, as these girls become women, but we will, eventually, get our money back."

The programme will, if if gets off the ground in England, save hundreds of lives each year. Cervical cancer is said to be one of those 'silent killers' amongst women in today's society. Yet a leading team of experts say that the results of the campaign will not be visual for another twenty years.

No matter, anything worth having comes with a price and the hefty tag on each session of jabs is already around the 250 pound mark per female.

Yet what price should we put on saving a human life? Lives should be priceless and with billions shifting hands through the NHS every year, there surely must be enough for such a vital programme.

There will be also a back up system where a strain of the jab can be given to girls up to the age of 16. However, parents will still have the last word as to whether their daughter will have the jab. Many fear that having the vaccination will lead to early sexual activity.

Yet there is a campaign to ensure the arrival of the programme within our schools and not just over here but everywhere for our daughters. The jabs will break down the strains of human papillomavirus which is responsible for triggering cervical cancers.

This particular cancer kills 274,000 women each year, and just over a thousand in the UK. This is vital work which needs to be given the financial backing. So far, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, Luxembourg, Germany, Italy and France have all given their own programmes the go ahead. It is thought that several states in America will also start the programme as soon as possible.

So what about the UK? Does it seem yet again that the government drags its heels over yet another national health issue?

Surely it is not a case of who much in money but who much can we afford to loose in lives?