Parents Balk at Idea of STD Vaccine for Kids (Against HPV, the cause of cervical cancer)

Newhouse News Service ^ | 4/8/05 | Ed Silverman

[repub_phdstudent]

well, one woman already decided that for her husband (Bobbitt) so watch out! ;-)

[jalisco555]

Aren't there something like 100+ different HPV versions out there? And won't around 80% of women/men test positive for it?

While there are around 100 different HPV types that infect humans only around 13 or so involve the female genital tract. The rest cause plantar warts and the like. Of the 13 cancer causing types two of them - types 16 and 18 - cause around 2/3 of all cervical cancers. None of the vaccines currently being tested are active against all 13 types but only the most common ones.

As to the commonness of HPV, well over half of all reproductive age women are infected at one time or another, although most will clear the infection spontaneously.

[WV Mountain Mama]

I do not see any need to make this vaccination mandatory or a school admission requirement. I would definitely talk to my daughter with her doctor to see if this was a vaccine she would want. Thankfully, I have at least 12 years before that, and I am sure she will not be sexually active for another 12-15 years after that! ;)

By the way, was chicken pox really that bad that we need a vaccine to prevent kids from getting it? Just wondering, I remember when my sisters and I all got them. It didn't seem a big deal. My kids get all vaccinations but prevnar and I am thankful that the pediarix came out to combine some of the shots. My 5 month old has been getting that one and has had no reactions or even the slightest bad time with it.

[jalisco555]

By the way, was chicken pox really that bad that we need a vaccine to prevent kids from getting it? Just wondering,

While chicken pox isn't too serious in kids it can be very serious if it infects adults and not everyone gets it as a kid. That's the main reason for vaccination.

[dit_xi]

Do not think that Hepatitis B can only be contracted by sexual activity or intravenous drug abuse/needle stick alone. The Hepatitis B virus can be contracted by any exposure to bodily fluids. Hepatitis B is extremely common in Southeast Asia. And especially common in Americans of Southeast Asian Americans. Many very young children within these households are tested positive for Hepatitis B exposure without ever having any history of sexual exposure or intra-utero exposure during birth. While cervical cancer is entirely a sexually transimitted disease due to HPV, it is not as common as Hepatitis B and not so easily transmitted as Hep. B.

[WV Mountain Mama]

My oldest will get one when he turns 4 in August. He was supposed to get it sooner but I was pregnant twice and he couldn't. I remember teaching preschool in 1994-5 and one of the moms gave us instructions that if any kids got chicken pox, her son was to go and hold the child and try to get it. She needed a week off from work and he never got them as far as I knew. LOL!

[cooldog]

If I recall correctly, chicken pox and measles are both diseases that are much, much worse if contracted as an adult.

Vaccinations can help to eradicate diseases entirely.

For a gripping read that will really educate on how that's done, find yourself a copy of "The Demon in the Freezer". It's about the eradication of smallpox, and the threat of bio-terror with smallpox and anthrax. EVERYBODY should ead ths book! (It's also quite enjoyable ... even if quite disturbing.)

[SouthernFreebird]

If the vaccine has no side effects then I would be first in line to have my daughter protected. I can't imagine anyone taking the chance of their child getting cervical cancer when there is a way to avoid it.

[elli1]

By the way, was chicken pox really that bad that we need a vaccine to prevent kids from getting it?

My understanding is that once a person contacts chicken pox, the virus stays in their bodies forever and can later emerge as shingles. And that people who have an active case of shingles are contagious & spread chicken pox to those who aren't immune.

[R. Scott]

NOOOOO!!!!!

[elli1]

Anything about vaccinating young men for HPV? Obviously, vaccinating women would be Priority One, but would the vaccine prevent men from becoming infected & spreading the virus?

[jalisco555]

Anything about vaccinating young men for HPV?

Hasn't been studied yet, as far as I know. It's not clear how one could determine the efficacy of a vaccine in men. The studies done on women look at the rate of precancerous changes in vaccinated women versus controls (not, by and large, at antibody levels). Men aren't affected by the virus the way women are so I'm not sure how you could design a study.

[yellervette]

The problem with the chicken pox vaccine, is that it has to be given every 10 years. So you see, there is still a risk of getting it as an adult, and having it turn into shingles.

I did everything I could to expose my child to chicken pox prior to school. It is a requirement before starting school, which I found ridiculous.

I can barely remember to get a tetnus shot every 10 years, are people really going to remember to get chicken pox shots every 10 years?

[FormerNavyBrat]

I'm a firm proponent of vaccination in general.

I am as well. My mother is a paraplegic as a result of having contracted the polio virus at age four (before the development of the vaccine). I think sometimes we take for granted that most serious childhood diseases have been virtually eradicated as a reault of widespread vaccination.

[FormerNavyBrat]

reault=result

[yellervette]

Very true. But, people think when they get a vaccine as a child they are bullet proof for life, and that is not true.

just because we all had the hepititis shots as kids, we would still need boosters prior to going to southeast asia unless you were in an environment where the antibodies were constantly exercised.

Its important to realize that you need to keep updating the vaccines, and I think its silly for something like chicken pox where a natural immunity is the result of the disease.

[Middle Aged White Male]

I totally agree. While there are the sexual connotations with the disease, giving children a vaccination isn't the same thing as offering permission for sex. Cervical issues are disastrous in their far reaching effect from infertility to death.

[A. Pole]

For the companies to realize those billions of dollars in annual revenue, they are expected to advertise widely and charge a lot

Free market bump

[MilitaryinGermany]

If the vaccine has no side effects then I would be first in line to have my daughter protected. I can't imagine anyone taking the chance of their child getting cervical cancer when there is a way to avoid it.


I am with you on that one, I have HPV. I never knew I had it since I got it years before anyone even really knew. I never knew till it became cancer. I would gladly pay even $500 a shot if I knew my daughter would be protected. There is "NO" test for men so she could stay a virgin till marriage and still have it. If she married a man who's mother gave birth to him vaginally and she had any Lesions or Dysplasia she could pass it onto him. So even the man being a virgin is no guarantee. This is a sore subject amoung doctors on hows its spread and how you get it. Hell you don't even have to have sex, If you bump uglies fooling around in High School. GUESS WHAT, you can get it. Its an ugly thing and if I can protect my kids THEN BRING IT ON!!!!! I never want my kids to go through the surgeries and treatments I have had to go through. I just wanna know when it will be on the market so I can get in line LOL.