New York progresses HPV vaccine distribution to health providers, school clinics

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Thursday announced that it has distributed 57,810 doses of Merck's human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil to city health providers, including school-based health clinics, the New York Post reports (Campanile, New York Post, 3/30).

Gardasil in clinical trials has been shown to be 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases, and about 99% effective in preventing HPV strains 6 and 11, which together with strains 16 and 18 cause about 90% of genital wart cases, among women not already infected with these HPV strains.

Gardasil also protects against vaginal and vulvar cancers, two other gynecological cancers that are linked to HPV, according to a study presented in Atlanta at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

FDA in July 2006 approved Gardasil for sale and marketing to girls and women ages nine to 26.

CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices later that month voted unanimously to recommend that girls ages 11 and 12 receive the vaccine.

The ACIP recommendation also allows for girls as young as nine to receive the vaccine and recommends that girls and women ages 13 to 26 receive Gardasil (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/29).

City Deputy Health Commissioner Isaac Weisfuse at a City Council Health Committee meeting said the department already is providing Gardasil in school-based clinics, but he would not specify how much of the vaccine was distributed to such facilities.

"Because adolescents do not utilize the primary care system as regularly as younger children, we are identifying alternative sites to maximize access to [the] vaccine," Weisfuse said, adding that school-based clinics and after-school programs will be "recruited" to participate in CDC's Vaccines for Children Program.

The city's public hospital system said it would help administer the vaccine in schools, the Post reports.

Parental consent is required to administer the vaccine, health officials said (New York Post, 3/30).