The money purchased 8,000 doses of Gardasil. But in the six months since the low-cost vaccine has been available, the state Department of Health has doled out about half that to doctors.

The department doesn't yet know how many of those doses have actually been administered. Health officials are trying to drum up interest in the remaining vaccines, noting the series of three shots are $5 each for women who qualify.

"We're not seeing as much [use] as we'd like to," said Becky Ward, education outreach coordinator for the Utah Immunization Program. "It's a new vaccine. Because it has somewhat of a sexual connotation, some parents may be reluctant to give it. Some providers may be reluctant.

"It's going to take a little time for the information to circulate. . . . It is a cancer-preventing vaccine."

Gardasil protects women from the four types of human papillomavirus that cause the majority of cases of cervical cancer and genital warts.

Huntsman's donation - made after conservative lawmakers refused to fund the vaccinations, saying they would promote promiscuity - pays for women ages 19 to 26 who are uninsured or whose insurance doesn't cover the vaccine. The vaccine is made for girls as young as 9; a separate federal program pays for vaccines for low-income children up to age 18.

Gardasil's manufacturer Merck plans to ask for federal permission to start offering the shots to boys, too, to protect them from genital warts and penile and anal cancer. Protecting men also could indirectly help women.

The low level of interest is a national problem: A recent survey by the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases found few adults follow national guidelines on vaccines, with about 10 percent of women ages 18 to 26 receiving at least one dose of Gardasil. Only 2 percent of Americans 60 and older got a shingles vaccine one year after the vaccine was on the market.

Kathy Burke, assistant medical director for Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, isn't surprised by the tepid response, since Gardasil is new. It was approved in 2006.

Plus, she said private-practice obgyns aren't used to administering vaccines, and likely don't want to deal with the reporting requirements or put up the money to buy the doses.

Burke calls the vaccine one of the best advances in women's health care since birth control.

"As long as I talk to people about it, they are most often excited and willing to get the vaccine. People have to be talking to them about it," she said.

She, and Merck, advise girls to get the vaccine before they become sexually active. For teens who would need their parents' permission to get the vaccine, but don't want to disclose they are sexually active, Burke recommends they start the conversation by saying they heard about the vaccine from an advertisement.

The state's remaining 4,000 doses will expire in 2010.

hmay@sltrib.com

---

* THE ASSOCIATED PRESS contributed to this story.

HPV vaccine

For more information about getting the low-cost vaccine, call 1-800-717-1811 or go to www.utahcancer.org/prevent to find a participating clinic.