Scottish schoolgirls get cancer jab

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Schoolgirls in Scotland became the first in the country to get a jab against cervical cancer on Monday.

Pupils aged 12 and 13 in several areas are being offered the vaccine from this week, as part of a nationwide programme announced last October.

The programme will eventually see all girls in Britain up to the age of 18 receive the jab -- although it is not compulsory.

Scotland is the first to start the campaign as schools there started the autumn term earlier than elsewhere in Britain.

The Cervarix vaccination works by targeting the human papillomavirus, which causes around 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer.

More than 1,000 women in the UK die every year from cervical cancer.

The vaccine costs around 300 pounds...