DAVID KILLICK
themercury.com.au
07/04/2010
JUST 55 per cent of Tasmanian schoolgirls have taken up the offer of free vaccination against cervical cancer.
Health authorities say they are surprised and disappointed at the low take-up rate.
Although more than 100,000 Tasmanian women and girls have been vaccinated, acting public health director Chrissie Pickin said take-up of the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines had been slower than she had hoped.
“You would think that with a new vaccine, a safe vaccine, able to protect your children against cancer, people would be knocking the doors down,” she said.
“Fifty-five per cent is not as good as we’d like but that’s the figure for schoolchildren who have completed all three doses so we do suspect that more will have had the first and the second doses, but clearly we would like them to complete all three doses.”