By JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Women In Government has added Maine to its nation-wide push for the mandatory inoculation of schoolgirls using Gardasil, a vaccine developed by Merck & Co. and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June of 2006.

Canavan in January had taken a post as one Maine's directors of Women In Government and resigned on Wednesday, citing ethical concerns about the organization's financial ties to Merck. The absence of debate over a move as expensive doesn't make sense, Canavan said.

Women In Government president Susan Crosby expressed regret at Canavan's move but reaffirmed the organization's position.

"While we are disappointed by (Canavan's) resignation, we are heartened that so many of our members have expressed strong support for our efforts in the fight against cervical cancer," she said. "This includes our support for HPV vaccine school requirements."

The state is not likely to mandate the use of Gardasil, or at least, not any time soon, according to Maine Public Health Director Dora A. Mills.

"It is a vaccine that's just out of the starting gate, and normally, we don't mandate a vaccine until there's been a longer-term experience with it," she said.

Mills said that the state mandates the use of only four vaccines -- polio, diphtheria/tetanus, chicken pox and measles -- although it recommends many. The state is also less likely to mandate the use of Gardasil because of its cost, Mills said.

"We don't mandate a vaccine unless we can provide 100 percent of that vaccine to anybody who wants it," she said. "And we cannot, at $360 (per person), give it to every child or woman."

An initial move from House Majority Whip Rep. Sean Faircloth, D-Bangor, to push Gardasil into mandatory use with exceptions for girls whose parents opted out died in committee.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Lisa MarrachŽ, D-Waterville, another director of Women in Government, aims to increase awareness of HPV, Gardasil and cervical cancer. The bill has not had a hearing, but is likely to get one sometime after the beginning of April, according to Jane Orbeton, a legislative analyst for the state Health and Human Services Committee.

MarrachŽ said she feels that it is too early to begin forcing Gardasil upon young girls, since the public may not yet be educated on the issues.

But, she said, "I would not want the debate to lose sight of the fact that we have a pharmaceutical company that has for the first time developed a drug that is a vaccine for cancer."