Re: NEXT MONDAY pm on channel 4

[Guest guest]

How safe is this jab for girls?

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Dispatches, showing Monday July 21st on Channel 4 at 8:00pm

In the next few weeks every girl aged 12 to 13 in Britain will be

offered a vaccination to help protect her against cervical cancer.

It's the first time a jab has been developed that can prevent a

cancer. This vaccine works by stopping women contracting the virus

that causes cervical cancer. But while some hail it as a medical

breakthrough, it has provoked controversy.

Mother to two girls, journalist Jane (pictured) sets out to find

answers to the questions every parent will ask before deciding whether

to allow their daughters to have the vaccination. Will it work, is it

necessary - and is it safe? The Jab That Can Stop Cancer sets out some

of the key facts about the sexually-transmitted virus that causes the

cancer and examines how the Government arrived at its decision to give

it to all girls.

And as this new vaccine is the most expensive the NHS has ever bought,

Jane investigates whether the new mass inoculation is value for

money.

The effects of cervical cancer can be devastating. Dispatches follows

one of the youngest women in the UK to be diagnosed with advanced

cervical cancer as she prepares for her wedding day. At just 22 years

old she may only have weeks to live - for her and her loved ones the

diagnosis has been shattering and may be one she could have avoided,

had the vaccine been available to her as a young girl.

And yet, in a trial vaccination programme in Manchester this year,

nearly a third of parents refused permission for their daughter to

have the jab. As a comparatively new drug, they tell Jane they are

worried about its safety and feel their daughters are too young to be

concerned about contracting a sexually-transmitted virus. Jane

investigates the safety and efficacy of the drug and examines concerns

that it will undermine the life-saving screening that detects three

quarters of cases at the pre-cancerous stage.

And while cervical cancer is potentially a killer, Dispatches examines

the cost of the vaccine versus the amount of lives it may save -

hearing from key NHS policy makers, the pharmaceutical company that

developed the vaccine and public health experts who question whether

it is the best use of NHS resources.

Jane heads to the US where the vaccine has been offered to 12-year-old

girls for the past couple of years and examines the marketing

techniques employed by pharmaceutical companies to persuade parents to

pay for it. Back in the UK Dispatches reveals how these same campaigns

have been used here.