A £64 million immunisation programme which offers teenage girls protection against the virus which causes 70 per cent of cervical cancers will begin in Scottish schools on September 1.
Public Health Minister Shona Robison announced today that the routine programme to immunise girls against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) would be for those girls in S2.
They will receive the vaccination alongside girls in S5 and S6, including those who have already left school, as part of a three year 'catch-up' campaign for girls aged 13-17.
In the next two years alone, 180,000 girls in Scotland will be offered the HPV vaccine.
In recognition of the scale and complexity of the vaccination programme, NHS boards across Scotland will receive an extra £1.5 million in 2008-09.
Ms Robison said:
"This is one of the biggest and most complex immunisation programme ever undertaken in Scotland.
"But it has potential to deliver tremendous health benefits for future generations of young women, offering them protection against the virus responsible for almost three quarters of cervical cancers.
"That's why we've accepted the recommendations of the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation and are implementing the routine immunisation programme alongside a catch-up campaign for older girls.
"We're also acting quickly - a year ahead of the rest of the UK - to begin the catch-up process, ensuring that as many young women as possible receive the protection this vaccine can offer."
The HPV immunisation programme is based on advice from the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert independent body who advise government.
The vaccine will be offered to girls and women who are up to the age of 17 and 364 days on September 1, 2008.
The HPV vaccine protects against two particular HPV strains - 16 and 18 - which are responsible for around 70 per cent of cervical cancers.
Despite the success of the Scottish cervical screening programme, in Scotland the lifetime risk of a woman developing cervical cancer is 1 in 124. In 2004, 282 new cases of cervical cancer were diagnosed in Scotland.
There were 102 deaths from cervical cancer recorded in 2004 in Scotland.
The cost of the Scottish Government's HPV immunisation programme over the next three years is estimated to be around £64 million.
