February 1, 2007
Contact: Bev Pfeifer-Harms
Director of Communications
314.345.5500 office

HPV Vaccine Available For South-Central Missouri Females

ST. LOUIS - Local health centers and clinics throughout Missouri are now receiving supplies of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, enabling thousands of uninsured and underinsured area girls and women ages 9-26 to be protected against cervical cancer. The vaccine is available through an $11 million grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH) and is being given at 100 sites around the state, including several in south-central Missouri. The vaccine, Gardasil®, prevents cervical cancer in females caused by certain types of HPV.

In south-central Missouri, the vaccine is available at these locations: Ava - Missouri Ozarks Community Health Medical, 504 NW 10th Ave.; Eminence - Shannon County Family Clinic, 209 Main Street; Shannon County Health Department, 110 Grey Jones Drive; Gainesville - Missouri Ozarks Community Health Medical, 304 West Third; Hartville - Wright County Health Department, 300 South Main; Mansfield - Missouri Ozarks Community Health Medical, 804 North Highway 5; Steelville - Crawford County Health Department, 202 West Main; Thayer - Oregon County Community Health Center, 2nd and Market; West Plains - Southern Missouri Community Health Center, 1137 Independence Drive.

Vaccine distribution is being coordinated by Missouri Family Health Council and Missouri Primary Care Association across the MFH service area, which includes 84 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis. The MFH grant enables Missouri health care providers to provide the vaccine free of charge to as many as 30,000 girls and women ages 9-26 not covered by adequate insurance or who do not qualify for Missouri's free Vaccines For Children (VFC) program.

Recently, the federal VFC program approved adding Gardasil to its free vaccine program for eligible girls and women ages 9-18. Most vaccines provided through VFC cover ages 0-18. Under general VFC guidelines, only Medicaid-eligible girls and women who have no insurance or are Native American or Alaskan Native, qualify to receive the HPV vaccine through that program.

Gardasil, which was developed by Merck & Co., Inc., has been available in the U.S. since mid-2006 following approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. At the same time, the national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended it be given to females ages 9-26. However, the commercial cost of the vaccine - about $360 for the three-dose regimen - has severely limited its availability to low-income and uninsured girls and women.

HPV has been identified as the cause of cervical cancers, pre-cancers, benign cervical lesions and genital warts. Although Gardasil does not prevent all types of HPV, it targets those strains that account for 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts.

Created in 2000 from the conversion of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Missouri, MFH is the largest non-governmental funder of community health activities in Missouri and is dedicated to serving the uninsured, the underinsured and the underserved in its service area. MFH's current assets stand at $1.3 billion, making it the 3rd largest health care foundation in the U.S. To date, MFH has issued more than $200 million in grants and awards.

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