One, it’s incredibly widespread.
Most sexually active people in the United States (U.S.) will have HPV at some time in their lives. There are more than 40 types of HPV that are passed on through sexual contact.
How widespread?
Partners usually share HPV. If you have been with your partner for a long time, you probably have HPV already. Most sexually active adults will have HPV at some time in their lives. Men with healthy immune systems rarely develop health problems from HPV.
How about some numbers:
Approximately 20 million Americans are currently infected with HPV. Another 6 million people become newly infected each year. HPV is so common that at least 50% of sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.
Two, it’s not only spread by sexual contact.
HPV is typically transmitted through direct skin-to-skin contact. The virus may also spread by touching something that has been contaminated with the virus and then touching the skin, although how often this occurs, if at all, is not known.
Transmission most often occurs from another person. It is possible for a person to infect themselves, although this is thought to be a rare method of transmission.
It is not known if HPV transmission can occur when the levels of the virus in the body are low or undetectable.
Three, it usually does not present any symptoms but it does cause cervical cancer, among other cancers. Thus, inoculating against HPV is an inoculation against cervical cancer, among other forms of cancer that HPV can lead to. But most of the time, HPV doesn’t lead to anything and people never know they have it.
Four, there are actually two vaccines for HPV:
- Girls and women: Two vaccines (Cervarix and Gardasil) are available to protect females against the types of HPV that cause most cervical cancers. One of these vaccines (Gardasil) also protects against most genital warts. Gardasil has also been shown to protect against anal, vaginal and vulvar cancers. Either vaccine is recommended for 11 and 12 year-old girls, and for females 13 through 26 years of age, who did not get any or all of the shots when they were younger. These vaccines can also be given to girls beginning at 9 years of age. It is recommended to get the same vaccine brand for all three doses, whenever possible.
- Boys and men: One available vaccine (Gardasil) protects males against most genital warts and anal cancers. This vaccine is available for boys and men, 9 through 26 years of age.
Cervarix is the newer of the two, and was not approved until 2009. So during the time frame of the Texas controversy, Gardasil was the only available vaccine against HPV. Neither vaccine has been scientifically linked with any serious side effects. The CDC does alert Americans to one side effect that hasn’t come up on a talk show yet:
The most common side effect is soreness in the arm.
That would be from the government needle, not the vaccine itself.
Texas is a border state. That border is unsecured and has been for years. Diseases travel north across that border every single day and often end up being carried into our schools, playgrounds, malls and towns.
Now that we’ve had our health and communicable disease lesson for the day, can we get back to bashing the walking, talking, job killing disaster that is Barack Obama?
More: I’ve said it before but it bears repeating, that the mandate was bad policy. That’s the kind of policy that should be moved through the legislature so the people’s reps have their say. It’s the current hysteria about the vaccine itself that, to me, is shrill and unbecoming.
More: Dr. Henry Miller offers some good advice for politicians and bloggers alike.
Thanks for the info.
It should also be noted that health insurance may not cover the shots which cost over $300, unless it is a required vaccine.
That’s because it’s not cost effective for their particular population. As Bryan mentioned, it’s incredibly widespread and most of the time it doesn’t lead to anything. However, I think if the doctor coded for a risk factor, like immunosuppression or smoking, the insurance company might pay for it. After all, they pay for things like pneumovax for high risk people, though they won’t for just anyone.
Rep Rachmann made a complete fool of herself, in her post-debate interview on Fox, implying that she believed this vaccination and other vaccinations may lead to mental retardation, by recounting an (apocryphal?) anecdote from some random mom in the audience. That’s a bridge too far, and then some, in scoring points on this issue. She’s trafficking in unfounded rumors and needlessly frightening parents about appropriate, beneficial vaccination programs, a la the truly execrable Jenny McCarthy. She should be ashamed of herself and needs to backpedal PDQ and apologize. Not even one of her biggest fans (and a constituent?), Ed Morrisey, could avoid criticizing her on this blooper. And if she keeps up these sorts of ignorant and silly attacks on other candidates, her campaign will collapse, and deservedly so.
Yes she did. I couldn’t believe she actually feels this way.
Ah, so it was okay to mandate something that all of us stupid, pro-cancer parents didn’t want; it was for our good!?? Let me know how that “long-term effect” thang works out for your daughters.
It’s just a theoretical question, but I am wondering what the long-term effects of eliminating HPV could be. Clearly, HPV has probably been with us for a long time, as it is nearly endemic and mostly does nothing unless there are other risk factors present. Probably we’ve evolved along with it. Weirder things have been discovered- like the fact that sickle cell anemia protects against malaria, and being too clean may have something to do with the rise in autoimmune diseases and lymphomas. Sometimes we do tinker with things we don’t understand.
The thing is, there are other things you can do to prevent cervical cancer, like get a pap smear and don’t smoke. Those are incredibly effective, and good ideas anyway. So I am not at all sure that this kind of widespread inoculation is at all necessary or a good idea for most girls.
Please learn the difference between PREVENT and DETECT. Getting a pap smear will not PREVENT cervical cancer,it will DETECT it and therefore still require treatment.
As to your comment below in response to #4, you are missing the point of making it “mandatory.” By making it required the insurance program of your choice was required to cover it’s cost, making it available to a large pool of people. If for whatever reason you don’t feel your daughter should get it, sign the waiver and move on. Not really all that complicated.
Thanks, but I learned the difference between prevention and detection a few years ago. In medical school.
You are simply wrong about what paps are for. In the VAST majority of problem cases, getting a pap smear detects abnormal cells before they are cancer. Usually, years before. Thus, the treatments are relatively simple. In fact, I would be willing to say they are the best cancer prevention test ever invented, certainly far better than mammograms. They are cheap, accurate, easy (well, relatively) and allow doctors to pick up on cancer before it’s even cancer. You can’t get much better than that.
That’s why cervical cancer rates have fallen like a rock over the past 40 years.
I also get the point about what it means to have a mandate. The problem is, the poster to whom I was responding inferred that people who spoke poor English wouldn’t otherwise get their daughters the vaccine because they didn’t know enough about it to ask for it. That may be true. But, if there is a mandate, they won’t opt out for the very same reason- doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, basically. I don’t like that.
People should have an informed choice. Even if an uninformed choice gets them to do what I think is right, doesn’t make it right. It’s still coercion.
THANK YOU, Bryan. Enough of this embarrassing hysteria.
One aim of the mandate with opt-out was to help populations of very poor people, many of whom live on the border and don’t speak much English. Certain poor populations have a much higher than average rate of invasive cervical cancer. These vaccines would prevent most of those cases of cancer.
Yes, and so would a pap smear. But we can’t force women to get those.
I don’t disagree with you about the vaccine, in fact I do absolutely believe Medicaid should cover it, but the mandatory aspect still feels a little coercive.
Dear Lord Americans are crazy weird about sex.
If this was a vaccine for a couple of strains of a virus that lead to even a small percentage of cancers that was transmitted via the respiratory system it would be hailed as one of the greatest discoveries of our lifetime and people would be clamoring to receive it.
But change the fact that you get the virus from having sex and suddenly it’s all OMG! We can’t vaccinate children against that, then they might one day grow up to have sex!! *gasp*
OMG Sweetie you’re so like correct about those uptight American puritans!
It’s like wow man-do you know that like screwing virgins will cure AIDS!
And like shooting up the twelve year girls like slutting it up with the junkman will like save them from cancer.
Stooopid uptight puritans, like don’t they know that like screwing a hundred different dogs every night is like good for their sexual health!
“Most sexually active people in the United States (U.S.) will have HPV at some time in their lives. There are more than 40 types of HPV that are passed on through sexual contact.”
“Texas is a border state. That border is unsecured and has been for years. Diseases travel north across that border every single day and often end up being carried into our schools, playgrounds, malls and towns.”
Wow. The first assumption A)’HPV is widespread’ leads to the last assumption that B) ‘Disease travels north across the border’ which then justifies government injecting twelve year old girls with a questionable vaccine?
If HPV is widespread here in the United States then why are more women NOT dying of cervical cancer?
Secondly, if HPV is reason for cause of cervical cancer in young girls who are pre-maturely sexually active would it be healthier for the girl to discourage sexual activity at pre-mature age?
Or would that be too much to ask of barcalounging blubbered-belly, greasy-haired porn-addicted freaks who must have sex with under-aged girls otherwise their mojo will end up in their hand when wiped off on their shirts?
Here is the thing about Science:
Not long ago Science said we will all die of AGW.
Science also said that low-sodium diet was healthy.
Science says that not smoking prevents lung cancer yet millions of non-smokers die from lung cancer.
Science say lots of stuff- these days mostly political- to justify acquiring Big Government money.
According to the CDC, the median age for cervical cancer is 48 years, and the incidence rate is 8 per 100,000. So my kid has a 0.00008% chance of developing cervical cancer, which, as Dr. Dana said, can be detected via PAP smear before it becomes cancer.
Gardisil is also effective against other cancers and genital warts? Why isn’t Merck putting that in their ads? Maybe because the FDA hasn’t approved it for those cancers. Sorry, but I’ll wait for the data.
Wow, I see allot of people are adamantly against this vaccine. I guess that’s why there is an opt out option. I think its a great idea. Polio was wiped out in 20 years using mandatory inoculations. An ounce of prevention and all that.