Click to play videoNew Delhi: In India alone 74,000 women die every year from cervical cancer and two hundred new cases are reported every day. A vaccine called Gardasil, approved two years ago by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in girls from the age of nine up to 26 has just arrived in India.
Gynaecological Oncologist, Dr Suresh Kumarasamy says, "It's a vaccine that prevents the infection that causes the cervical cancer."
The cause for cervical cancer is the Human Papilloma Virus or HPV. It infects 80 per cent of women in their lifetime, and could lead to the cancers of cervix, vulva and vagina.
While the vaccine is being used in about 106 countries, the American National Vaccine Information Centre says side effects cannot be ignored. The aluminium content in the vaccine can cause nerve cell damage or even death in extreme cases.
About 83 per cent of those who used Gardasil experienced chronic joint pain. There's also been some controversy regarding it being given to girls as young as nine.
A professor at the University of Melbourne, Dr Garland says that the vaccine is given to girls before they become sexually active.
Here in India, the vaccine's the cost factor that will prove critical. Given a price tag of Rs 2,800, it may simply be out of reach for many Indians.
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