SHANGHAI - In a major step forward in fighting cervical cancer, a human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine was made available in China for people under the age of 45 on Thursday.Cervical cancer is caused by sexually acquired infection with certain types of HPV, with types 16 and 18 causing 70 percent of all cervical cancers. There is also evidence linking HPV with other cancers affecting both male and female genitals.Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women, after breast cancer, with almost 530,000 new cases reported worldwide every year. China has a very high incidence and death rate, with around 98,900 new cases reported in 2015 and 30,500 deaths. In other words, three Chinese women died of cervical cancer every hour.Qiu Qiong, 35, a mother of two boys, was the first vaccine recipient at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital affiliated to the Fudan University. Her mother died of cervical cancer seven years ago.I would never forget my mother's pain and despair in her last days, said Qiu. I wanted to get the vaccination immediately.Men and women can get the HPV vaccination in 287 hospitals in Shanghai. The hospital Qiu visited had received 119 reservations as of 9 am Thursday.The world's first HPV vaccine, Gardasil, was developed by US pharmaceutical company Merck and Co, and the China Food and Drug Administration approved it for sale last year. The product is available in many provinces, including Hebei, Shanxi, Hunan and Ningxia Hui autonomous region.The first HPV vaccine introduced in China was GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix, available for anyone aged 9 to 25, which can protect against HPV 16 and 18. Gardasil, which protects against four types of HPV, can be given to people aged 20 to 45. Both vaccines require three shots over six months.One shot of Gardasil is priced at 803.5 yuan ($127). It is a little expensive making it cost prohibitive for many poor patients, said Sui Long, chief gynecologist at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital affiliated to Fudan University. Most cervical cancer patients are on low incomes.A lack of public awareness is another obstacle. Only 15 percent of women on the Chinese mainland have heard of the vaccines, said Sui.Since Gardasil entered the market in 2006, HPV vaccines have become available in more than 130 countries and regions, including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Due to safety concerns, the vaccines were not available on the Chinese mainland until Cervarix was approved in July 2016.Mainland residents had to travel to Hong Kong or abroad to get the three-shot vaccination, making the cost higher.China is also developing its own HPV vaccine, and it is expected to enter the market in 2022.Gardasil was developed by Chinese cancer researcher Zhou Jian and Australian immunologist Ian Frazer. In 1995, Zhou and Frazer started cooperating with Merck and Co to develop the vaccine. After Zhou's unexpected death from hepatitis at the age of 42 in 1999, Frazer continued the work until the vaccine was ready for market.Gong Xiaoming, a leading Chinese gynecologist, has been promoting the HPV vaccination on social media since 2014. He said it is effective and advises all people to get it, the earlier the better, as the virus is primarily transmitted through sexual contact.Women can also prevent the disease through regular health checks, he said. From 2009 to 2016, China offered free cervical cancer checks to more than 60 million rural women.Cervical cancer is potentially fatal but preventable, said Gong. It's essential we raise public awareness of the disease and the vaccines. tyvek event wristbandsmake your own rubber braceletrubber wristbands custom cheapcustom fidget spinnerscustom sweatbands no minimumblack rubber bracelets
HQ-9 air-defense missile is one of the air-defense missiles developed by researchers at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp's Second Academy. FAN SONG/FOR CHINA DAILY China has become a world leader in air-defense technologies thanks to the hard work and dedication of researchers at China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp's Second Academy, the country's major developer of air-defense weapons systems. Researchers from the academy's Zhang Yiqun Laboratory have been playing a vital role in the development of China's new air-defense missile system by designing its control systems - the brain of any missile. Compared with previous generations of air-defense missiles, the new-generation missile system will have a wider range of targets and be much more technologically sophisticated, taking China into the ranks of just a handful of nations capable of designing and producing such a system. The cutting-edge missile's control systems need to be extremely efficient and accurate, said Wang Mengyi, deputy head of the Second Academy's General Design Department and former leader of the laboratory. Metaphorically put, the mission of these control systems is to guide a needle to fly 1,000 kilometers to pierce the eye of another needle, he said. For researchers from Zhang Yiqun Laboratory, their mission is to turn this seemingly impossible task into reality. Wang said control systems are mainly tasked with working out a missile's best trajectory and making sure it can hit its target. The successful development of China's new air-defense missile system would be unachievable if researchers at the laboratory had failed to design world-class control systems, he said, noting that they adopted new design methods that have reduced design time tremendously and improved missile performance. Wang Xiaodong, a laboratory researcher, said members of the laboratory spent numerous days and nights improving the accuracy of control systems and optimizing the algorithms that are central to them. For example, we worked 10 consecutive days and slept little each day to detect and resolve one extremely rare abnormality because all of us are aware that our nation's air-defense networks can only be reliable if we are meticulous and responsible toward our work, he said. The laboratory, named after Zhang Yiqun, a top researcher at the academy and former head of the laboratory, has been granted 11 National Science and Technology Advancement Awards and 28 National Defense Science and Technology Progress Awards due to its extensive contribution to China's air-defense networks. It has also registered more than 130 defense technology patents. In the laboratory, members of the Communist Party of China play a vanguard, exemplary role, leaders of the laboratory said. They always take the lead in innovating, carry out their assignments carefully, with scrupulous attention to detail, and also display an inspirational level of diligence and devotion toward their work.
