The Creator of the Cervical Cancer Vaccine Visited Cambodia

Phnom Penh, 13 May 2011

By Sok Lak

Professor Lan Franzer, Creator of the human papilloma virus (PHV) vaccine against cervical cancer and a person in 2006 Australia of the year visited Cambodia in May.

H.E. Penny Richards, Ambassador of Australia Embassy, introduced Professor Franzer. She stressed that professor migrated to Australia in 1981 and has worked since that time in medical research, first in Melbourne, then in Brisbane from 1985. For a number of years professor Frazer’s research focused on the link between HPV and cervical cancer. In 1991, professor’s team created a world-first cervical cancer vaccine. Then the vaccine was released in 2006.

Following an immunization program in Australia, 80 per cent of Australian secondary schoolgirls have now been vaccinated. Similar school age immunization programs have begun in the US, Canada, France, UK, Germany, Greece, Kenya, Romania, New Zealand, South Korea and Sweden.

She mentioned that he has received a number of Australian and international awards, including the CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science (2005), the Howard Florey Medal for Medical Research (2007), the Prime Minister’s Prize for science (2008), the Balzan Prize for Preventive Medicine (2008) and the Australia Medical Association Gold Medal (2009).

In the visiting of professor, the Australian Embassy presented a screening of the documentary Catching Cancer for representatives of the health sector in Cambodia. The documentary features footage of professor Frazer teams of health workers in Vanuatu in how to administer the vaccine.