KHI NEWS SERVICE
MERRIAM, June 25
A $500,000 grant will help uninsured young women in the greater Kansas City area gain access to the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
The REACH Healthcare Foundation grant is expected to assist about 5,500 young women in a six-county area. The foundation is partnering with the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City to help community and public health programs provide the HPV vaccine at no cost to eligible females in an effort to reduce the incidence of cervical cancer in women.
The foundation also awarded grants totaling $1,760,688 to 22 nonprofit organizations to support programs in the areas of safety-net healthcare, mental health and oral health.
Among other things, the grants will help a Johnson County community health center hire its first full-time physician/medical director. They also will be used to expand dental services for uninsured residents of Lafayette County, Missouri, and provide health screenings and follow-up medical, dental and vision treatment for pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students in three school districts in Allen County, Kansas. The awards represent the Foundation”s second grant cycle for 2007.
For the HPV vaccine award, the foundation is joining the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City to fund the distribution of Gardasil® through 31 community health centers, public health departments and other locations in Jackson, Cass and Lafayette counties in Missouri, and Wyandotte, Johnson and Allen counties in Kansas.
Gardasil®, produced by Merck ‘ Co., Inc., is the first vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective for preventing cervical cancer. The vaccine works on four types of HPV, which account for 90 percent of all genital warts. The vaccine also prevents the two types of HPV that cause 70 percent of cervical cancers. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on vaccine issues, recommends the vaccine for females ages 9 through 26.
“While the HPV vaccine is available to most young women through their private healthcare providers, it is not widely available to uninsured and underinsured females,” says Brenda Sharpe, REACH Foundation president and CEO. “This grant presents a special opportunity to address the disparities between individuals who have insurance or the funds to pay for preventive healthcare, and those who don”t.”
The foundations are expanding upon an initiative begun by the Missouri Foundation for Health in St. Louis, which has allocated $11 million over one year to cover the costs of the vaccine for 30,000 uninsured and underinsured girls and women in 84 Missouri counties.
Sharpe says that although many private insurance plans cover the vaccine, the commercial cost
about $360 for the three-dose regimen
has limited its availability to low-income and uninsured girls and women. Distribution of the vaccine will begin in August.
For more information, contact the REACH Foundation at (913) 432-4196 or visit the web site at
www.reachhealth.org
.