Vaccine “row” that takes 3 months to start

Some months ago I posted here on my support for the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil. Approximately 200 women die each year from the condition in the Republic of Ireland. This condition is in the news as the Reality TV personality Jade Goody is now in the terminal stages of this form of cancer. The vaccine if introduced would over a long period of time reduce incidence of the condition in Ireland. The occurence of cervical cancer is set to rise by 1.5% per year so when my daughters are in their middle age it may well have doubled. I was particularly disappointed that the Health minister Mary Harney had withdrawn her plans to vaccinate young girls as I knew it mean that while the likes of me could afford to buy the vaccine for my daughters at the appropriate age, others would not. In short I don’t believe a woman’s health should be subject to the family’s ability to pay. It is unusual to vaccinate against a cancer and that’s because in the case of cervical cancer about 66% of cases are caused by a virus HPV. So eventually you could expect about 130 lives to be saved by a policy of vaccination
Arising from my view I joined a facebook group. I subsequently received an email out of the blue from an opponent of the vaccine who claimed that the full truth of the vaccine was not being told. She went on to say I was playing Russian roulette with my child’s health. I disliked the attitude of the group so much that after the second email I received I replied asking them not to contact me again.

Roll forward 3 months and I got an email from the Sunday Tribune setting out the activists complaint that I’d been unfair to her. It seems the activist has approached the paper setting out a number of complaints against the facebook group as she was removed from it eventually. Cllr Ryan in Wexford is charged with asking her not to waste politician’s time. What has the world come to that I’m expected to indulge someone who peddles bad science simply because the unfortunate Jade Goody is in the news for the worst of reasons? Lets get this clear, The vaccine is licensed in the US by the FDA, here by the Irish Medicines Board and HSE. The noted oncologist Prof John Crown also backs the vaccine. Lets me direct on this, If I was diagnosed with a cancer, John Crown is the man I’d look for.

Anyhow today the Tribune says that there is a row and that reader's can conclude that Councillor Ryan is in the eye of the storm! Well in the immortal words of Mohammed Ali, Do I look bruised? I’ll get over it but the reality is that there are women for whom cervical cancer is neither a campaign against a vaccine nor a debate about science but a serious life threatening condition. Bruised? It's worse than that. These women are hurting and it’s a pain and fear I’ll not have to experience because I’m male and that my daughters can hopefully avoid. That’s a reality I’d like to see much less of.

Prevention always better than a cure

A couple of years ago when I first heard of the anti-cervial cancer jab my immediate response was that with 2 young girls in the family there could be no better life long gift parents could give than the anti-cervical vaccine. The cost of about €350 per child was I thought well worth it as I could (and still can) well afford it. Every year about 80 women die of cervical cancer and while the vaccine is not effective against 100% of the causative agents of the cancer, I believe that any parent would want to protect their child’s life, long after the child has become an adult and indeed well into later life. When I grew up I lived near a polio hospital and played football against the teenage residents. It is quite extraordinary that due to scientific advances and vaccine, polio is now effectively extinct in Europe within the last 35 years. It is natural for a parent to do what they can to protect their child regardless of cost.

That’s why many parents are astounded by the latest cut back announced by Mary Harney, the Independent FF Minister for Health & Children. Taking advantage of the media spotlight on the US presidential election, Minister Harney announced the axing of the programme to immunise 12 year old girls against cervical cancer. Her reason? She can’t spare the €10M. It's not so long go during the Foot and Mouth Crisis of 2001 that when the suggestion of vaccinating livestock against FMD was floated and there was no suggestion of a prohibitive cost.

The matter was raised this week in the Dail and the FF/Green response was that instead there will be a screening programme for cervical cancer. This line was successively pushed by FF, Green and independent TD’s including one who recently resigned from FF. Where have these TD’s been for the last year? Were there not a number of inquiries precisely because cancer screening has failed due to the lack of investment? In one case Mary Harney’s office had been contacted by a specialist in Port Laoise outlining his concern at his equipment. Would it not be more efficient to both screen those who are outside the age cohort that are best suited to the vaccine with up to date equipment and vaccinate all 12 year old girls? Why should we tolerate the inevitability of contracting a condition when it can be prevented.

The view that you take the cheap option wasn’t thankfully that of Barry Desmond when he sanctioned the MMR. We had a case in this country where the blood bank took the cheap option and haemophiliacs contracted AIDS as a result. FF of course have form in this area, calling an early general election 20 years ago rather than give money voted by the Dail to the same haemophiliacs organisation. At the back of it all is the reality that someone like me who can stick their hand in their pocket can protect their daughters while those that cannot will never be sure that their daughter’s can be safe.

When Noel Browne discussed his Mother & Child scheme with the hierarchy they grudgingly accepted that the “necessitous poor” could be protected. The new right in FF & the Greens don’t even concede this. Dr James Deeny, Browne’s Departmental Secretary, wrote about his experience in the Department of Health in “To Cure is to Care”. Fundamental to his approach was a view that no woman should be at the mercy of extreme poverty and lack of care. He concluded that when people talk about closing beds and hospitals what they are really talking about is ending services that sick people need. One wonders how long more Minister Harney has to serve but it’s certain that in years to come we won’t be reflecting on her time as a golden era where services flourished.