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Help for Rwanda

Apr 27, 2011
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The Rwandan government, Merck, and Qiagen have started a national cervical cancer prevention program in the African country, the first nation on the continent to do so, reports Science Insider's Martin Enserink. Merck and Qiagen will make donations to help vaccinate girls against HPV, and Merck will donate more than two million doses of its HPV vaccine Gardasil for the first three years of the program, which is targeting girls ages 12 to 15, Enserink says. Qiagen is planning to donate 250,000 DNA-based HPV screening tests for women ages 35 to 45. After the three years, Enserink adds, the Rwandan government will start paying for the vaccines and the screening tests, but at a discounted price.

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