Why do women have to get vaccinated? Men pass HPV to women by sexual intercourse but yet women dye of it and men do not get treated for that! The maker of Gardasil is asking the FDA to approve the vaccine for me.
HPV is a virus and the vaccine Gardasil only prevents 4 HPV types two low risk HPV types 6 and 11 and two high risk HPV types 16 and 18. The vaccine does not prevent all genital HPV types. They are 40 genital HPV types. The vaccine does not prevent all HPV types that have been linked to cervical, vulva, vaginal and anal cancer.
The vaccine is most effective if given before any sex.
Giving the vaccine to girls only...address only half the problem...
A girl can be a virgin when she marries...and acquire HPV for her husband...if he has engaged in sex before. Many men and women do acquire HPV at first sex.
About 3,700 women in the US die each year due to cervical cancer...
In some situations HPV can be a problem for men...and it seems that men may have a greater risk of oral cancers due to high risk HPV types that affect the oral area. The areas of oral and anal cancers and HPV have indicated that it is important to vaccinate males also.
Gardasil maker pitches the vaccine for boys
For girls, the debate was about sex. Now, it's about cost and safety. A double
standard?
By Rob Stein
Washington Post
Posted: 04/01/2009 12:01:00 AM CDT
WASHINGTON 鈥?When a vaccine designed to protect girls against a sexually
transmitted virus arrived three years ago, the debate centered on one question:
Would the shots make girls more likely to have sex?
The vaccine's maker now is trying to obtain approval to sell a vaccine for boys,
and the debate focuses on entirely different issues: Is it worth the money, and
is it safe and effective?
"We are still more worried about the promiscuity of girls than the promiscuity
of boys," said Susan Reverby, a professor of women's studies and medical history
at Wellesley College. "There's still that double standard."
Industry observers say the discussion illustrates how the interplay of
political, economic, scientific, regulatory and social factors influences
medical care.
In the case of the vaccine, it reflects a strategic tack by Gardasil critics,
growing concern about health-care costs, fears about whether treatments are
adequately vetted and stubborn gender biases.
"There is the cost, the safety, the boys-versus-girls," said Susan Wood, a
professor of public health at George Washington University. "These are some of
the complexities that are going to have to be addressed."
Gardasil protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, the most common
sexually transmitted infection. HPV causes genital warts and, in women, can lead
to cervical cancer, a disease that strikes about 10,000 American women a year
and kills about 3,700.
Diane Harper, a
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professor of medicine at the University of Missouri at Kansas City who helped
study the vaccine in women for Merck, questions whether the benefits for boys
are worth even small risks.
"There's probably enough data to say it probably is effective for the prevention
of genital warts. They're not fun, but they're not at the same level as cancer
or lethal infectious diseases," Harper said.
But besides protecting against genital warts in males, it averts less common
malignancies that HPV can cause: penile and anal cancer, as well as cancer of
the mouth and throat. The virus causes at least 250,000 new cases of genital
warts and an estimated 7,500 cancers in males, resulting in about 1,000 deaths
each year. Plus, vaccinating boys and men would help prevent the spread of the
virus to their sexual partners.
"By vaccinating men as well as women, you reduce the amount of virus that is out
there that can be transmitted," said Richard Haupt, who leads the HPV vaccine
program at Merck & Co., which makes Gardasil. "There will be a benefit not only
to men themselves, but to their partners and future partners."
After the Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for girls as young
as 9 in 2006, medical authorities recommended they receive it at age 11 or 12
before they start having sex. Critics worried that vaccinating children would
send a subtle signal that their parents assumed they would become sexually
active.
Merck also launched an aggressive marketing campaign to persuade states to add
the vaccine to the list of those required for children to attend school. But the
company abandoned the strategy in the face of an intense backlash from those who
said the decision should be left to parents.
In December, Merck asked the FDA to approve the vaccine for males ages 9 to 26.
In February, it presented the results of a large study that tested the vaccine
in men to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory
Committee on Immunization Practices. The committee's recommendations influence
which vaccines schools require and whether private insurance companies and state
programs will I'm not 100% sure, but there's no way to tell if a man carries HPV. http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV.h...
Women need to get vaccinated because certain strains of HPV can cause cervical cancer, which doesn't have a high survival rate. HPV is a virus not a bacteria- and certain strains of HPV can cause cervical cancer- they are now doing studies on a vaccine for men because they are finding it causes cancer in men too. |
