The government should pay for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines to be given to young girls in order to lower the risk of cervical cancer later in life, a white paper released yesterday by a public health interest group said.
A paper on cervical cancer policy released by the Health, Welfare and Environment Foundation called for increased investment in cervical cancer prevention, utilizing a two-point strategy of vaccination combined with stepping up pap smears.
In particular, the authors of the white paper recommended that the Department of Health find funding to provide free inoculations for all girls at the age of 12 or 13 against HPV.
Recent statistical analysis conducted by Academia Sinica, the Taiwan Association of Gyneologic Oncologists and Taipei Medical University demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of the vaccines, said Chou Cheng-yang (
"Taking factors such as relative prevalence of different types of HPV in Taiwan into account, we find that universal inoculation of girls at a young age with an HPV vaccine could cut invasive cervical cancer by 67.9 percent," Chou said.
The researchers calculated the cost of increasing each quality-adjusted life year to be NT$444,000 (US$13,500) on average, making the NT$4,000 vaccine cost-effective as it extends life by 0.13 quality-adjusted years on average.
Despite the fact that Taiwanese women have been getting more pap smears since the procedure was covered by the National Health Insurance in 1995, one quarter of all Taiwanese women have never received one. Cervical cancer is the fifth deadliest cancer for women.
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