Due to excess demand for the recently approved vaccine that guards against Human Papilloma Virus, many girls applying for the free doses through New Hampshire's Vaccines for Children program have found themselves on waiting lists.
HPV is a sexually transmitted disease that can cause cervical cancer and genital warts. The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine, Gardasil, for females between the ages of nine and 26, and the Centers for Disease Control recommends the vaccine for all females in this age group, regardless of their level of sexual activity or whether or not they already have a strain of the virus.
The Vaccines for Children program, which provides free vaccines to New Hampshire children ages 18 and under, offers Gardasil to girls between 11 and 18.
Merck, the company that produces Gardasil, has undertaken an extensive advertisement campaign for the product, which has contributed to the increase in initial demand. There is not a Gardasil shortage, however.
Greg Moore, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said that the Vaccines for Children program has released Gardasil under a "four-year roll-out plan," which means that over the next four years, the program intends to vaccinate all eligible girls in the 11 to 18 age group who wish to receive the vaccination.
"Right now, we're covering all girls ages 11 to 18 in the state, which is eight years of life, so we're trying to cover an initial surge [of demand for the vaccine]," Moore said. "After that we'll cover one year of life per year. But during this initial surge, we're trying to catch up and cover that entire eight-year band."
From the program's beginning, the Vaccines for Children budget has allowed for the vaccination of one quarter of the eligible girls per year, or about 8,500 girls statewide each year. But due to the media-induced high demand for the vaccine, more than one quarter of eligible girls have already requested to be vaccinated, resulting in waiting periods.
"Some people suggested that maybe we should increase [the budget for Gardasil to decrease wait times], but then we ask, what should we get rid of, chicken pox, flu shots?" Moore said.
The New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services has spent $1.9 to $2.0 million on the Gardasil vaccine, which accounts for about 40 percent of the Vaccines for Children budget.
For patients over 19, or those who wish to bypass the waiting list, the vaccine costs $120 per each of its three injections. Because there is no shortage of the vaccine, these patients will not have to wait.
Liliane Sznycer, a pediatrician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, said that several parents per week have requested to have their daughters vaccinated since the vaccine was approved.
"The state of New Hampshire provides our office 100 doses per month," Sznycer said. If more than 100 patients request the vaccine in one month, some will have to wait for the next month's doses to arrive.
Dartmouth girls under 19 will not have to wait for a free vaccine, according to Betsy Morse, a women's health doctor at Dick's House.
"We have plenty of Gardasil vaccine in stock, both of what we order normally and of the stock that we received from the New Hampshire Department of Health to administer for free to those under 19," Morse said.
