New Hampshire’s health department will send its first shipments of a new vaccine that prevents cervical cancer to doctors this week. But many local practices say that the amount being sent won’t be enough to meet the demand for an unusually popular vaccine.
Doctors and practice managers say that they already have long waiting lists of patients who want the vaccine, which protects against the human papillomavirus, a common sexually transmitted infection, which causes cervical cancer and genital warts. The vaccine will be offered for free to girls between 11 and 19 as part of the state’s childhood immunization program.