NEWS: No Brainer: Vaccinate for HPV

CULTURE: No Brainer: Vaccinate for HPV

The brainless fundies in the Texas house of representatives are trying to ensure that plenty of Texan women keep getting cervical cancer. Big surprise: there've always been public freakouts over vaccination, ever since smallpox vaccine was introduced to England from Turkey (the image above dates from that period).



But come on, people: we require elementary school kids to be vaccinated against smallpox now, along with polio, rubella, measles, mumps, and hepatitis. If you think vaccinations cause autism or violate Nature's Law or something, you're free to sign a paper saying you don't want your kid vaccinated and agree to pull it out of school if there's an outbreak of measles. (And the rest of us are free to think your pseudo-scientific beliefs are ridiculous, but that's by the way.) Vaccination is a public health issue, and cervical cancer is bad for the public health. If vaccinating kids against smallpox hasn't caused ten-year-olds all over the country to decide that it's a-ok not to wash their hands, vaccinating kids against HPV isn't going to cause them to decide that it's a-ok to have sex.



Anyway, since when did teenagers decide whether or not to have sex based on their odds of getting cervical cancer?



Bitch_PhD suspects that if men got cervical cancer, HPV vaccination would be a lot less "controversial."

this is texass we're talking about, land of the brain dead, and they're damn proud of that. plus this is a woman's issue. the great men of texass have bigger fish to fry, like protecting the rights of blind men to shoot small furry animals

Agreed, Bitch_PhD, if men got cancer from fucking, there'd be a lot less controversy. Texas would be first in line to propose some kind of mass immunization tax dollars didn't pay for.

So what the hell? A vaccination for HPV doesn't exist anyway does it?? Its a virus. I'm confused.

Many vaccines are for viruses.

http://www.gardasil.com/

So one of my exgirlfriends already has it. Any point in her getting vaccinated still?

I dont live in Texas.... I live in Austin

Of course the govt doesn't want to give the vaccination. Men don't get HPV so why waste the money to save a few women?



Edit: As i was typing that the tv ad for Gardasil came on. PLEASE vaccinate everyone against HPV. I really fucking hate that commercial and would like a vaccine against it.

HPV doesn't just cause cervical cancer there is some evidence it causes anal cancer and a few others. although cervical cancer is much more common.

a vaccine its such a simple thing to save thousands of live. but some people like to think sex doesn't happen and anything that reminds them of it is scary

There are two Vaccinations for 4 different forms of HPY. One is for men and women and costs about $400USD and one is for women that currently don't have it.. (adolescent girls generally don't have it) Both basically protect you by making it almost impossible for the virus to penetrate the cell.. basically it's a chemical condom for the virus, it enters the body and a rubber is put on it.
Also both men and women both get HPV, however men basically have no major ill effects minus a chance at having small warts.
Women can develop Cervical cancer from it as well as warts.

I think there are several strains maybe the vaccine would cover others.

Although that probably means you have it too and current/future girlfriends its one of the hardest stds to block.
Luckily there is only a small chance of cancer while millions are infected.

Yes, there certainly is a vaccination against HPV. Men can get it too, but because of some peculiarity of our bodies, it's less likely to lead to Cancer than it is in a woman. Young men should get the vaccine as well, if for no other reason than keeping them from becoming carriers. Vaccinations against viruses can prevent a disease, by giving the immune system a head start, but are no help at all if you have already caught it.

What we don't have is a cure for any viral illness. If you recover, it's because your immune system fought the virus to a draw. It isn't gone or dead, only held in check. What cures we have are for bacterial and parasitic illnesses. Antibiotics can actually kill off the disease. That isn't 100% true, though. Case in point: We can't cure tuberculosis, only hold it in check with a lifetime regimen of antibiotics.

Confabulating a public health issue with a "moral" issue is just a smokescreen, the pious pinheads are once again pushing their dominance and control agenda.

Are men even allowed to get gardisil yet? My understanding was that since it was only tested on women, it wasn't approved for men. I'd like to be immune to common strains of genital warts too, please.

Side note:

Source: CDC.gov

I live in Texas and we can't even pay for our school system, or a decent child protective service (the lack of adequate CPS resources kills or harms more children than HPV could). This program is hurried, ill-thought, and overly taxing on our already stressed and mis-managed state budget.

The whole thing smells of corporate corruption in politics - seeing how our Gov. Rick Perry and other lawmakers received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from Merck - the drug's manufacturer.

I would be concerned for my wife or daughter if she were required to get this because the long term health effects are unknown. Where is the long term testing before this gets rolled out as mandatory? Major drugs like Vioxx have gone through FDA approval only to learn years later that they do MAJOR damage to the takers.

Imagine exposing millions of girls to a vaccine that's long term effects are still unknown. What if that vaccine had a serious long term effect on life span or physical health? And the real reason for it is more profits for Merck - not necessarily better overall health of women. There are so many areas where the money can be better spent to make a bigger positive difference in the lives of MORE women.

HPV is something you get only from risk based behaviors - such as unprotected sex. Couldn't $20 in condoms do better than a $400 vaccine until further testing is done?

Also, after a period of time, the patent will open up and generic vaccines that could be produced far more cheaply. This would also allow time for the long term studies to complete on a smaller number of subjects.

I'm not saying that the vaccine is a bad idea, but I think rushing it without further testing is a bad idea. Just my $0.02 from the land of the proud brain deads.

Oh, stop it. Not everyone who is opposed to MANDATORY vaccination is basing their opposition on "pseudo-scientific" or religious beliefs. You shouldn't need me to remind you to read up on Swine Flu vaccines, where more people died from the vaccine than from the flu, and 500 people were left with crippling nervous system disorders from the vaccine.

Smallpox is spread via the lungs and therefore can be transmitted through contaminated objects like clothing. Likewise for most of the other diseases you mentioned. There have been terrible outbreaks of these dangerous diseases in the general population throughout history. Vaccines have been highly effective and reports of side effects have been miniscule. The risk:reward is overwhelmingly in favor of the vaccination programs.

HPV on the other hand is a SEXUALLY transmitted disease. We don't know yet for certain just how effective the vaccines will be or what their side effects might be (gawd knows what sort of underhanded big pharma dealings are going on behind our backs.) Read the "official" data on the disease and what it says is, essentially, the more you whore around, the better the odds are you will get HPV.

So when you start telling people that their 6th grade daughters MUST be vaccinated, are you surprised that they would get angry at what you're implying!?!?! Come on, I mean REALLY. It ain't just a bunch of beef-heads from Texas that are going to oppose this.

We should use the educational system to insure that young girls & women are alerted to the dangers of HPV and the availability of the vaccine. They should be made aware that if they become sexually active, there are some choices they'll have to make. But to mandate to American families that their children must be involuntarily vaccinated against a disease that is ONLY caused by sexual activity (and usually by INDISCRIMINATE sexual activity) is just spoiling for a fight.

http://www.cdc.gov/std/HPV/STDFact-HPV.htm

the reason the bill is facing the opposition it is is because gov. rick perry has attempted to rush the bill through congress. the developing scandal is that perry gets big dollars from merck. wonder why he's so in favor of the bill. the guy is shady. i think the problem is forcing girls to get the vaccine.

The key word used in at the Gardisil website, is "may." It "may help" guard against 2 types of HPV that cause cervical cancer and 2 types of HPV that lead to genital warts. It doesn't guarantee that it "will" protect, only that it might.

Texas apparently wants all girls to experience the possible side effects "...is given as 3 injections over 6 months and can cause pain, swelling, itching, and redness at the injection site, fever, nausea, and dizziness." by making it mandatory.

Sorry Bobbsy11, but if your g/f already has it, taking the preventative drug most likely won't help.

Texas also apparently wants Merck, a German-owned drug company, to become richer, since they are the only ones that can make the drug for the next 25-30 years without selling licenses.

ok , "texas" doesn't want anything, not even the politicians. just the governor. the funny thing is is that this post directly contradicts what the article says. you probably didn't realize that.

how about this, then. Any parents that want their kids to be vaccinated can have it, and any that don't can opt out and explain themselves to their daughter when they find pre cancerous cells in her pap smear. Because your kids are gonna start whoring around vaccine or no vaccine.

Shit, tough choice.

Great point - and since it "may help" guard, but they are being told that it is a vaccine - girls "may" be less likely to use protection during sex because they feel more invincible. There are more problems out there than HPV that can be transmitted sexually - like AIDS or Herpes.

the point here is that people don't want this to mandated. the people that want this want it only for money. i'm not questioning wheter the vaccine is something that people probably should get (frankly, i don't have a clue), i'm saying that it should be personal choice. it's a woman's body, right? right?

I would hardly consider Herpes to be as bad as a cancer-causing virus.

Shit. I turn 30, and suddenly I agree with theconservative on an issue.

I'm 100% down with making the vaccine available for free through the schools. I have no problems whatsoever there. My issue begins and ends with forcing girls to take it when it's still a new vaccine. Yes, it's been deemed safe, but that was in a much, much smaller case study. If there is a problem with the vaccine, this would almost certainly reveal it.

Send out forms, tell parents that the vaccine's been rigorously tested in peer-reviewed clinical studies, but that those studies were in groups much, much smaller than the female student body of the third-most populous state in the union. Make sure the kids have the signed consent of the parent or legal guardian before giving them the shot.

HPV's a killer, I agree absolutely, and I'm with everyone who hopes and prays that the vaccine works. I don't buy for a moment that this'll encourage sex in people who would otherwise abstain. I'm just not sure that it's wise to stress test it on children. We've got a nasty, cancer-causing virus on one hand, and the unquantifiable risk of a new drug on the other. The parents should make the call here, not the state.