March 14: Good response of the human body to Gardasil, a vaccine against cervical cancer, has prompted Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) to request Dispur for additional vials to be administered to more women.

Doctors at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology in the GMCH, who have administered the vaccine to about 200 women so far, claimed that they had not recorded any side effect in any of these women so far.

The vaccine is being administered free to unmarried girls between 13 and 26 years under a pilot project on cervical cancer vaccination launched by the state government at the GMCH in November last year.

GMCH principal Kabul Saikia said, “The primary aim of launching the free vaccines in a pilot project mode was to constantly monitor and study their effect once injected into the body of a woman. Once the response of the human body to it is found to be positive, it can be made available to all women. Fortunately, so far, we have not recorded any adverse effect in any of the women who were vaccinated, which is why we have decide to request the state government for more Gardasil vaccines.”

Though the GMCH still has stock of Gardasil vaccines provided under the pilot project, these will be used to administer the second and third dose to women who have already received the first. The second dose is administered two months after the first and the third is given six months after the second.

“Since it is essential to complete the three doses for the vaccine to be effective, it was administered to our medical students and nursing staff in the initial stage so that doctors here were able to monitor them. Hence, the present stock of the vaccine will be utilised to administer the subsequent doses to them. Though we have requested the state government for additional stocks of the vaccine, we will begin giving it to more women only after completion of this pilot project,” Saikia said.

According to data compiled by the B. Booroah Cancer Institute in 2009-10, the incidence of cervical cancer in the state is 16.89 per cent. Kamrup (metro) has the highest number of cervical cancer cases in the state at 18.9 per lakh of the population. Hence, vaccination against cervical cancer is essential to curb the spread of the disease.

Once the state government clears regularisation of the vaccination programme at the GMCH, every woman will be able to avail it free of cost.