School nurses are being trained to give young girls a new vaccine to protect them against cervical cancer.
From October, about 3,200 girls aged 12 and 13 across the Bradford district will be invited to have three jabs over six months to give them protection against two types of the human papilloma virus (HPV) which cause 70 per cent of cervical cancers.
Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women under 35 years old. About 3,000 women are diagnosed with the disease in the UK each year. Of these, around 1,100 will die.
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The Department of Health estimates the HPV vaccination campaign will save the lives of about 400 UK women each year.
Vaccines will be given to girls in school. Health professionals from Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust (tPCT) and Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are inviting teachers and school nurses to take part in information sessions throughout May to learn more about the vaccine.
Parents and guardians will also receive letters giving them information about the vaccine and asking for written consent for their child to be vaccinated.
The Department of Health has provided primary care trusts across the country with £8.9million to deliver the new national immunisation programme.
Girls born between September 1, 1995, and August 31, 1996, will be the first to be vaccinated, beginning in the autumn term.
A two-year catch-up campaign will start from the beginning of the 2009/10 school year for all girls aged up to 18. Vaccinations will not be offered to women aged 18 and over as the Department of Health has been advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) this would not be cost-effective.
Shirley Brierley, public health consultant at Bradford and Airedale tPCT, said: "Our priority is to protect girls in their early teens. I would urge all girls in these age groups to have the full course of jabs to protect themselves against cervical cancer."
The new vaccination will provide protection against the two high-risk HPV types that cause more than 70 per cent of cervical cancers. But it will not protect against all the HPV types that cause cervical cancer.
"It is important for women to continue to have cervical smear tests too as the national cervical screening programme remains essential to the prevention of cervical cancer," said Dr Brierley.
For more information, visit immunisation.nhs.uk or contact NHS Direct on 0845 4647 or visit nhsdirect.nhs.uk
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