Candeck

What is the vaccine?

The vaccine is called Gardasil and is produced by the Merck corporation.

What is the disease?

human papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus that is primarily responsible for warts. Many strains of the virus have been identified and they are numbered. For instance type 1 is responsible for common warts on the hand and type 2 for warts on the foot.

HPV also causes warts in the vaginal area and of much greater concern it is the cause of cervical cancer. It is also being implicated as the cause of one type of throat cancer and of penile cancer.

What does the vaccination protect against?

Gardasil protects against 4 types of HPV. The 4 types (6, 11, 16,18) are believed to cause 90% of vaginal warts and 70% of cervical cancers. Type 16 has also been implicated in a form of throat cancer.

There is also concern that HPV may be the cause of penile cancer and there are trials under way to establish if there is a connection and therefore Gardasil should be given to boys as well.

Who should get vaccinated?

The current CDC recommendation is for girls to start the dosing sequence at age 11 or 12. The goal is to complete the series prior to any sexual activity. This includes petting or hand to genital touching as this can cause transmission of the disease.

Is it safe?

The fact that this is a brand new vaccine and we have not had a chance to see the long term effects often causes concern. As is the case with all vaccinations the risk of disease heavily out weighs the risk from the immunization.

In this case the HPV virus that is being vaccinated against causes cervical cancer. Currently cervical cancer is the 7th leading cause of death in women in the world.

Further this vaccine does not contain mercury, thimerosal, or the live virus.

Overall this vaccine gets a very high rating of safety and you should definitely consider being vaccinated.

What about older children that were not vaccinated?

The CDC currently recommends that all women under the age of 26 get the vaccination. The original trial was conducted on women from the age of 12 to 26 and that is why the recommendation only covers women up to the age of 26. If you are a sexually active female of any age with multiple partners then it would be wise to discuss getting the immunization with your doctor.

What if I practice safe sex?

While condoms may limit the spread of the HPV virus they do not keep you from getting it. So even if you practice safe sex you are still very likely to get this disease. This is a tough virus that survives quite well on your skin, even when exposed to air.

What if my daughter intends to remain pure until marriage?

Often people use the excuse the they intend to stay pure until marriage and remain faithful to their mate during marriage. We would not hesitate to agree that this is not only possible, but advisable in todays world of ever increasing sexual freedom and sexually transmitted diseases.

The problem with this position is that you can not guarantee that your spouse will have chosen the same path. He or she may not have kept themselves pure and since the types of HPV that cause cervical cancer are symptom less, they may never know they have contracted it.

If you have come to your convictions because of a religion, then you still have the same problem as you may fall in love and marry someone who is a recent convert and does not have the best track record prior to conversion.

Whatever your plans it is strongly advised that if you are a female you get vaccinated and if you are a male you keep close tabs on the vaccine to know if it is approved for males.

Is there any controversy over the Vaccine?

It seems that all immunizations have some controversy some where in their history. In this case the main controversy focuses around getting the population immunized. There are 2 problems that are addressed here, the first is how to get the entire population immunized and the second is the fact that the vaccine costs $120 per dose or $360 for the full 3 dose course. When you add the cost of the 3 visits to the doctor this is a considerable amount of money.

The real noise started when in February of 2007 the governor of the state of Texas mandated that all girls entering the 6th grade had to show proof of vaccination. Americans tend not to be very happy with mandates and this raised a lot of controversy. The Texas mandate has been repealed, but many states are looking at alternatives ways to mandate the immunization.

Other states are looking to follow the Texas policy, but most are considering some sort of an opt-out rule to allow those opposed to skip the immunization.

The other model that has been put forth is that of New Hampshire where the state looks for voluntary participation by providing the vaccine for free to females between the ages of 11 and 18.

What are other sources of information?

There are a number of sites on the web with information on HPV and the Gardasil vaccine. We provide a few here to give you further information.