Wednesday, May 06, 2009


FIGHTING THE VIRUS - THE CASE FOR CERVICAL CANCER PROTECTION...


Fighting the virus - the case for cervical cancer protection...

Fighting the virus - the case for cervical cancer protection. Let me state from the outset that this is a subject that I, personally, know little about. But this has been the subject of both the printed media, radio talk back and television in recent days.

Dozens of New Zealand schools have decided to opt out of the government’s mass immunisation program to protect girls against cervical cancer. There has been considerable comment on both sides of the argument.

Girls as young as 12 years old started receiving vaccinations at their schools in Feb 2009. However, there has been 50 adverse reactions reported so far this year, with ten reports of fainting and one of an allergic reaction.

The previous Labour-led Government had qualified the value of its program by claiming the future death rate of cervical cancer would be halved in future decades by the use of the $177 million program over five years to provide free immunisations.

Each year there are 180 diagnoses of cervical cancer and about 60 women die from it. I wonder how this compares with Australian, British and North American diagnoses?

The Health Ministry’s chief adviser for population health, had confirmed 78 schools had declined to participate further in the program.

The program has been controversial from the beginning, with morals campaigners objecting to the vaccinations of girls against a cancer caused only by sexual activity.

The Womens Health Action group claimed the program was introduced too quickly and had asked for an urgent review.

The Privacy Commissioner had said her office had been working with the Health Ministry and the School Trustees Association to check on complaints about personal information contained in rolls being released. This should help to discover the faults in the first immunisation and how it could be managed better.

I wonder if Australia, Britain and North America have similar immunisation programs?

Just what is Cervical Cancer and how is the virus being fought?

1/ Cervical cancer is caused by the human papilloma virus. Some strains of HPV lead to cervical cancer.

2/ The HPV infection that causes cervical cancer is spread through sexual contact.

3/ The Gardasil vaccine protects against two HPV types that cause most cervical cancers and genital warts - provided a person is not infected already.

4/ An immunisation program began in September, offered to women born in 1990 and 1991, and younger school leavers.

5/ Women still need to have cervical smear tests.

6/ The school - based vaccination program begun this year is available to girls in years 8 to 13,

7/ The vaccine is most effective when given to girls who have never been sexually active.

I hope this has proven useful to understand why an immunisation program was thought necessary in New Zealand. How does it compare to other overseas programs?

Read today

Sunday, May 03, 2009


DON'T CRY FOR ME FIJI - THEN THERE WILL BE THE FINAL COUP...



From health to the health of a nation. A tragedy or the tragic opera that is Fiji?


Back in the 1980’s advertising brochures proclaimed, ”Fiji the way the world should be.” Yeah right!


Two Rabuka coups, a George Speight rebellion and the Commodore Bainimarama military takeover, delayed briefly by a rugby match between the Army and the Police, won by the Army naturally. Who needs enemies when you have such friends back home?

Despite last minute attempts by Fijian military dictator, Commodore Bainimarama to meet the leaders of Australia and New Zealand and negotiate a change of mind over sanctions against Fiji, Fiji has been kicked out, officially suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum, and possibly from the Commonwealth later in the year.

Bainimarama claims elections can’t be restored for another five years, but this a load of codswallop;the constitution can be amended at another date. He claims to be the hero of multiracialism in Fiji, but is just another dirty little dictator like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe who dictated his country from being the bread-basket of Africa to becoming the basket-case of all time!

There are absolutely no democracy or civil rights in Fiji, the constitution has been tossed into a garbage can, judges have been sacked, the local media has been dictated to and controlled by the army, and foreign media and diplomats detained and kicked out of Fiji. Some Fijians have lost there lives, and others are missing.

Much foreign aid has already been suspended by Australia, NZ, Britain and the European Union. Fijian army peacekeepers may also be suspended from new contracts by the United Nations, and as a consequence much of Fiji’s economy will be affected with the loss of the soldiers income. With unemployed troops drifting around unemployed in the capital of Suva, Bainimarama’s regime could well have some substantial opposition. Fijians are pretty effective soldiers - good peacekeepers!

Then there may be the final coup for Fiji. Don’t cry for me Fiji!

The Bainimarama regime’s future is already in doubt - the clock is ticking!


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