Cancer vaccine to be made available to Ontario school girls

From Canada.com:
Ontario announced Thursday it will begin to offer a vaccine that could help prevent cervical cancer to girls in Grade 8, a day after an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal argued it is premature to offer the immunizations on a universal basis.

Ontario's free and voluntary program, which is to commence in classrooms this fall, will offer the Gardasil vaccine to about 84,000 young women at a cost of about $39 million a year or $117 million over three years -- Ontario's share of the $300 million announced in the last federal budget for the vaccine.

Gardasil is administered in three doses over six months. "By the end of this school year, all of our Grade 8 girls will get it if they choose," said Sandra Pupatello, Ontario's Minister Responsible for Women's Issues. ...more