Gardasil gets booster shot from feds, but demand steady here

Massachusetts health experts said they haven't seen any of the worry that prompted federal health officials yesterday to reassure the public about the safety of a vaccine that protects girls and young women from a virus that causes cervical cancer.

It's the the vaccine's cost, triple doses and customary caution from parents that initially slowed down the innoculation rate, state officials said, not any unusual level of concern.

The Food and Drug Administration and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said yesterday they have been monitoring reports of possible side effects from Gardasil, but did not find evidence to support a link between serious problems and the vaccine.

Approved two years ago, the vaccine is recommended for ages 9 through 26. The idea is to immunize girls and women against the human papillomavirus, which is spread through sexual activity, before they become exposed.

Dr. Carole Allen (left), director of pediatrics for Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, said the parents and patients she sees in her Somerville practice weren't asking about the vaccine's safety but showed some reluctance when she first suggested it. But when they returned a year later for the next checkup, they said yes.

"Some parents were saying, Is this going to make my child feel like they have to have sex now?" she said in an interview. "I always presented it from the point of prevention. You do it before you need it -- that's the whole point."

Allen said about half of her eligible patients had received the vaccine, which is given over six months. That's quite reasonable, she said, since it's not mandated by the state.

The state Department of Public Health does provide vaccine to members of MassHealth, uninsured people, community health center patients, and American Indians and Alaskan natives. So far, demand for the vaccine has met projections, DPH spokeswoman Donna Rheaume said today. Since January 2007, DPH has distributed 177,380 doses.

DPH sent yesterday's advisories from the FDA and CDC to community health centers, hospitals, local health boards of health, and about 3,000 providers.

For private physicians, offering Gardasil is expensive, at $120 for each of three doses, said Allen, who is president of the Massachusetts chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. At first some doctors waited to see how insurers would pay them for administering the vaccine.

"That was a huge issue," she said. "A lot of private practices had to front the money to buy the vaccine, and then they had $100,000 of vaccine sitting in their refrigerators in jeopardy of a power failure that [might not] get reimbursed."

Major insurers in Massachusetts cover the cost of the vaccine now, she said.