South Africa: HPV 'an Epidemic' Among HIV-Positive Women

The Treatment Action Campaign said on Tuesday it is lobbying pharmaceutical firms to shave the price of human papillomavirus vaccines so that developing countries can afford the inoculation. Certain strains of HPV cause most cases of cervical cancer, and HIV-positive women have 10 times the risk of infection with oncogenic HPV, TAC said. The AIDS group believes a mass vaccination drive in South Africa could avert many future deaths.

"Both [vaccine manufacturers] are willing to reduce prices for the South African Department of Health," said Nomfundo Eland, a TAC spokesperson. "At the current price, in order to provide [the HPV vaccine] Gardasil to these girls, the public sector would need more than 3.6 billion rand (US $359 million) for the initial vaccination effort and 1.2 billion rand (US $120 million) annually thereafter."

The private-sector cost of HPV vaccines is more than 2,100 rand (US $209) for the three-shot series. Without some price cut, the cost of the vaccines "makes them inaccessible to the majority of poor world citizens, who account for by far the greatest rates of cervical cancer mortality," said Nosisa Mhlathi, a TAC researcher.

The Cancer Association of South Africa has identified cervical cancer as "the leading cancer faced by South African women."

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