Injection of hope

By Wen Chihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-04 09:17

HPV is a common virus. Up to four out of five women will encounter it at some point in their life, says Qiao.

He notes that women who have a high number of sexual partners, start having sex at an early age or whose partners have contracted any STD, are at a higher risk.

Vaccination is therefore most effective when given to females before they are likely to be exposed to HPV, that is, before they are sexually active, Qiao explains.

Different countries and regions have different value systems, however, so the age group for vaccination varies. Qiao says another problem is that China has no reliable data about what age youths first engage in sexual contact.

In the United States, statistics released by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation in 2005 revealed the median age for boys was 16.9 years and 17.4 years for girls.

In order to nail down the best age for vaccinations in China, Qiao and a team from the Cancer Institute will soon launch a nationwide survey covering Chinese women's sexual behavior and awareness of HPV.

"The survey will include more than 10,000 women aged between 15 and 54," he says.

After the full course of three doses, it takes another two and a half years to track the effect of the vaccine, so Qiao reckons it will take at least three years to get the vaccine approved and released on the mainland.

As for Zhang Na in Xiangyuan, she says: "Once Gardasil is available here, I will help my daughter get the vaccine as soon as she is old enough. By then, I think the price will be affordable for Chinese women like me."

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