Prevention is better than cure.

My last cervical cancer vaccine jab, July 2008. Lol.

I've never been the biggest fan of our government. Sometimes I feel like they tend to talk the walk rather than actually walking the walk.

But I am totally advocating their move for Cervical Cancer Vaccination for 13-year-old Girls (from The Star).

I guess this is something that's quite close to heart for me because I got the vaccine jabs last year. And I remembered that my dad spent around RM400 per shot for Anis and I, and each one of us needed THREE shots. So yeah, prevention is WAS pricey.

The Star's article mentions that the Government will be spending RM150 million annually for the three jabs. Frankly speaking, I think it won't be a waste of the government's money, considering that:

• Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among females in Malaysia after breast cancer
• The incidence of this cancer is 11.6 per 100,000 populations, with the age standardized rate of 16.2 per 100,000.
• It is estimated that approximately 440,000 new cases of cervical cancers occur worldwide annually, and 80% of these cancers occur in developing and undeveloped countries.
• The association of HPV (the organism that causes cancer of the cervix) with cervical cancer is very high, much higher than the association of tobacco smoking and lung cancer.
• The younger the age of the woman in indulging in sexual activity the higher is her risk to get HPV infection.

So yeah, although there are cases such as where a British girl dies after being vaccinated, the fact that the government is taking action by giving the vaccination to these girls when it would probably cost around RM1000 per person to do it privately is definitely something to be proud of.

Hence, even though I'm not directly affected by this news, I'm happy that the government has decided to introduce this vaccination program.

But I do wonder, since they are now supplying 13-year-old girls with these vaccines, do older girls get subsidies for the jabs? I mean, it would be so unfair if these girls are forced to pay so much just because they are older, especially for the girls coming from families that aren't so well-off.

Oh well. At least now I know that when I start paying income tax next year, at least I can tell myself that they may be using my money to cover the vaccine expenses. Lol.

And I just realised that this vaccination program cements the fact that yes, we women are high-maintenance. But not by choice. We were just born that way. Hahaha.