HPV VACCINE PROPAGANDA?
At first, scare tactics were used to convince parents that pre-teen girls needed to be protected from eventual infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV) that has been implicated in many cervical cancer cases. Oral and genital cancers in males and females have been linked to prior HPV infection, but this was not mentioned much during the early publicity. Some two dozen states were headed for a vaccination mandate for girls.
So after the first quarter of 2007, when Merck pulled the plug on its overt lobbying for their Gardasil vaccine, did the lobbying go deeper underground?
Within a day or so of Farrah Fawcett's death from cancer, physicians who had not treated Ms. Fawcett were pontificating about how it was entirely possible that a sexually transmitted disease (HPV) caused Fawcett's disease. The CDC attributes 90% of anal cancers to HPV, but still isn't this all conjecture on the part of these physician pundits? Do you really believe that tissue biopsies are routinely screened for papillomavirus?
Regardless of whether you think tween boys and girls should be routinely vaccinated against HPV, did you know that effective July 1, 2008, Gardasil is one of several vaccines required by immigrants seeking permanent residence?
The criteria for vaccines required for immigration is that the vaccines are 1) age-appropriate, 2) protect against a disease that could cause a disease outbreak or protect against a disease that has been eliminated or being eliminated in the United States. The other vaccines include rotavirus, hepatitis A, meningococcal, and zoster.
So now, another expensive vaccine stands in the way of an immigrant's legal status?
I don't understand why you use the term "scare tactics" to describe the information that cervical cancer is associated with HPV. It IS associated with HPV http://www.thehpvtest.com/About-HPV/HPV-FAQs.html.
The time to get a vaccine for a problem that is transmitted sexually (as is Hepatitis B) is BEFORE sexual behavior begins. Yes, Gardasil is expensive, but less so than one culposcopy, which is a procedure done when a Pap Smear shows possible HPV infection. And far less expensive than surgery if cervical cancer has progressed.
There are so few cancers that can be prevented, I am glad that we have this in our arsenal.
I agree completely with you about doctors getting air-time pontificating about a patient they never met, and have no idea about. I think it is okay to give general information about a disease process, but when they start personalizing it as you describe, it is completely unprofessional.
BTW, the Permanent Resident vaccine requirement has me scratching my head!
June 28, 2009 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, HPV is associated with cervical cancer but the vaccine is said to prevent four strains.
The only "out" that I see with the HPV vaccine required for persons seeking permanent residency is that it may fall under the "age-appropriate" category.
I am not anti-vaccine. I think this is a very odd "big pharma"-government deal.
June 28, 2009 10:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
I had not responded to reply before for the same reasons Cville mentions. Cancer is transmitted sexually and can show up as anal, throat, and cervical cancer that we know of... I don't feel the public is aware of this as they should be which doesn't jive with the issue of 'scare tactics'. I would like to be informed without the demand to be afraid.
What bothers me about the deal for this vaccine being require not inside the US but for those wishing permanent residency is that they may just be using these people as guinea pigs before making it required within the US?
June 28, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
The vaccine is effective against the most dangerous HPV strains. Other strains are associated with little or no risk.
On a statistical basis, vaccination is most effective before sexual activity starts, but in any individual, it's effective as long as that person has not yet become infected with the virus.
The 90% figure does not require routine biopsies, but rather that a sufficiently large sample of cases has been analyzed at the start. It's equivalent to election-year polling, where a tiny fraction of the population can predict the outcome within a few percentage points margin of error. In the case of HPV biology, it's likely that an original sample of only several dozen cases would suffice, provided that statistical variations in the biology of the disease are not large.
June 28, 2009 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I have no problem making Gardasil available, and other than a objection in principle to public subsidies, I really do not have a problem with the government subsidizing Gardasil vaccines.
However, I think that this vaccine is way too new for us to make it mandatory in the near future. I'd like to see long-term what happens to those who take it before I would force anyone to take it.
June 29, 2009 1:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
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