28 August 2008

Queen Beatrix greets Olympic medal winners
Almost all the papers print photos of the Dutch Olympic medal winners on the steps in front of Queen Beatrix's residence Huis ten Bosch.

All the winners are wearing their grey Olympic team suits and a medal on an orange ribbon around their necks. The Queen is positioned next to the 2-metre-tall long distance swimmer Maarten van der Wijden, who stands two steps down to avoid making the Queen look too small.

The medal winners were then whisked away in an open top bus to the Knight's Hall where they were addressed by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Dutch IOC president Erica Terpstra.

De Volkskrant describes a gruelling schedule of parties and receptions for the Olympic athletes. The paper quoted hockey player Lidewij Welten: "We landed on Monday and haven't unpacked yet!"

Terpstra, a former Olympic Swimmer, says things have changed since her day back in the sixties. Then, when you got to Schiphol, you just went home.
 
Virgin vaccine may not be cost effective
Trouw and NRC.Next report that a government plan to introduce a vaccine against cervical cancer for 12-year-olds in September 2009 is too early.

Experts from the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam say it is not clear how effective the virgin vaccine is or whether it is cost effective.
 
The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) which causes cervical cancer is transmitted by sexual contact. So to protect girls from HPV, they have to be inoculated before they become sexually active.

However, no research has been done on the effect of the vaccine in 12-year-old girls, although it is known that they react differently to 15 to 26-year-olds.

The experts ask what if you need to revaccinate eight years later. "It is relatively easy to vaccinate all young girls, but as they grow older it is more difficult to reach them. And the high-risk group you really need to get to, promiscuous women and prostitutes, never turn up for revaccination programmes."

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