VICTORIA - British Columbia has become the latest province to offer schoolgirls a vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease that causes most cervical cancers.
The voluntary immunizations for the human papilloma virus will be available to girls in Grade 6 and Grade 9, with their parents' consent, the province announced Monday.
HPV is the second most common type of cancer for women between the ages of 20 and 40.
The vaccine Gardasil was approved by Health Canada last year for girls as young as nine and B.C. will begin offering it this fall.
Health Minister George Abbott said parents will receive information about the vaccine before the end of the school year.
According to the B.C. Cancer Agency, about 143 women in B.C. will be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year and 55 will die from the disease.
"This is an important step forward and complements our current efforts in the fight against cervical cancer,'' said Dr. Andy Coldman, the agency's vice-president of population oncology.
Regular pap smear exams have been the main way to cut cervical cancer rates among women.
Nicole Adams, spokeswoman for the B.C. Cancer Agency, said that for the first time this year the agency has set up 10 clinics in Vancouver, Abbotsford, New Westminster, Langley and Surrey for women to get a pap smear without booking an appointment.
"We know there's a lot of barriers to women getting a regular pap smear,'' Adams said, citing lack of a family doctor as one of them.
The clinics opened Monday and will run for a full week, until May 12.
Quebec, New Brunswick, Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador and Manitoba already offer subsidized vaccines to students.
