Utah cancer research was winner in funding

HB358, sponsored by Rep. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, originally asked for $1 million so the health department could create a cervical cancer immunization program and education campaign. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a vaccine to prevent infection that causes cervical cancer.

Lawmakers passed an amended version, without any funding, which directs the health department to create an education campaign about the causes and risks of cervical cancer and its prevention, including information about "abstinence before and fidelity after marriage as the best prevention" of spread of human papillomavirus, the virus responsible for the disease. The health department will have to educate the public within existing budgets.

"Basically, we are where we were. We do receive federal funding to do breast and cervical screening, but it's limited," said Filion, adding that women who don't have resources are less likely to be screened and, when cancer is found, it's at a more advanced stage, where it's more costly and harder to treat.

HB191, sponsored by Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Holladay, would have required health insurers to cover the cost of mammograms for women over age 40 and those with a previous personal or family history of breast cancer. The bill failed.

The American Cancer Society says that, detected and treated early, 91 percent of women diagnosed with breast cancer are alive five years later.

---

E-mail: lois@desnews.com