The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) welcomes the decision by the Department of Health to provide the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine Gardasil® for the national HPV immunisation programme for girls in school year 8 (aged 12 to 13 years) from September 2012.

With more than 4 million people affected by genital warts in the UK, this is the most commonly seen sexually transmitted disease in Genito-Urinary Medicine (GUM) clinics. A three-year contract has been awarded to Sanofi Pasteur MSD for supply of Gardasil® which protects against two strains of HPV that cause over 70% of cervical cancer in England and a further two strains that cause around 90% of genital warts.

The decision for Gardasil® to replace Cervarix® as the vaccine being offered for the HPV vaccination programme will be implemented from the start of the next academic year- September, 2012.

Responding to the decision taken by the Department of Health last week Professor Richard Parish, RSPH Chief Executive said: “We welcome the introduction of the Gardasil vaccine. The health benefits of vaccination are clearly considerable enabling the opportunity to drastically reduce the second most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK- genital warts. Overall Gardasil® will have a greater impact on public health and as such is a cost effective decision”.

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Notes to editors

• The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is an independent, multi-disciplinary organisation, dedicated to the promotion and protection of collective human health and wellbeing. Through advocacy, mediation, empowerment, knowledge and practice we advise on policy development, provide education and training services, encourage scientific research, disseminate information and certify products, training centres and processes.
• The RSPH is the oldest public health body in the world and enjoys patronage of Her Majesty the Queen
• It is a registered charity formed in October 2008 with the merger of the Royal Society of Health (RSH) and the Royal Institute of Public Health (RIPH)
• The RSPH is an awarding body recognised by Ofqual. Around 100,000 students take our qualifications each year through our network of over 1500 training centres throughout the UK. Our qualifications cover areas including health improvement, food hygiene, pest control, health & safety, nutrition and emergency planning.
• The RSPH is a membership organisation with almost 7,000 members. Membership of RSPH is a widely recognised mark of commitment to public health and brings real professional benefits.
• The RSPH run a wide variety of conferences covering topics such as food safety, water, infection control and occupational medicine as well as training programmes covering all aspects of health improvement 
• The RSPH run an accreditation service for health and safety related products and manage the second largest food packaging certification scheme in the UK

www.rsph.org.uk