Health experts challenge MP

By Tania Martin
PAPSCREEN Victoria has called for women to look at all the facts before making any decisions on the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil.
This comes after Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato spoke in Parliament when she labelled the vaccine as the unnecessary ‘medicalisation of women’s bodies’.
Kate Broun, manager of PapScreen Victoria, said the vaccine is a medical breakthrough, which has been supported worldwide.
Ms Broun wants women to look at all the facts before making a decision on the vaccine.
The vaccine will protect young women from contracting a wart virus that can lead to cervical cancer.
The Federal Government last year approved a vaccination program to give Gardasil to 12 and 13-year-old girls.
It also agreed to fund a two-year catch-up program for 13 to 18-year-olds through a school vaccination program, and 18 to 26-year-old women through their general practitioners.
Ms Lobato told Parliament if women didn’t smoke and if they ate healthy food, lived well and used a condom if they had multiple partners, then they were unlikely to get cervical cancer.
Ms Broun said the main cause of cervical cancer is now known to be a human papilloma virus (HPV) – genital worts, which are transmitted by skin-to-skin genital contact.
But she said HPV is so common that it can be considered to be a normal part of being sexually active.
“In most instances it clears from the body naturally without medical intervention,” she said.
“But changes to the cells of the cervix caused by HPV can lead to cancer if left untreated and having a Pap test every two years is vital for preventing this.”
Despite Pap screening being a big part of detecting cervical cancer, Ms Broun said Gardasil would be an integral part of preventing cancer.
Ms Broun has also said the using a condom doesn’t necessarily protect women against the HPV virus
“While using a condom can protect against many sexually transmitted diseases, they offer limited protection against transmitting HPV because they do not cover all the genital skin.”
Ms Lobato stood by her comments last week saying that a universal program was not needed when only four out of 100,000 Australian women develop cervical cancer and one per cent dies from the disease.
But Ms Broun said the reason the rate of cervical cancer is low is because of Australia’s highly successful screening program.
“Cervical screening has been available in Australia since the 1960s and each year saves 1200 women from developing cervical cancer,” she said.