Posted on 01/31/2007 4:01:47 AM PST by XR7
A bill concerning the mandatory vaccination of US middle-aged schoolgirls against cervical cancer is considered controversial and some states even try to pull it back.
The vaccine is only produced by Merck Sharp & Dohme (Merck & Co) and is called Gardasil. This is the world’s first vaccine against cervical cancer and other diseases caused by certain types of the human papillomavirus (HPV).
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Gardasil for mass-prescription on June 8, 2006, after a lot of clinical tests. The tests also indicated that Gardasil’s administratin to girls should occur before they become sexually active.
According to statistics, 270,000 women died of cervical cancer worldwide in 2002, making this form of cancer one of the deadliest. In the US, cervical cancer killed around 3,700 women in 2002.
Some states (through their Senate representatives) are not convinced yet of the efficacy of the vaccine. Sen. Delores G. Kelley, a Baltimore County Democrat, said yesterday that she plans to pull a bill she herself sponsored that calls for all sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated by September 2008. She voiced the concern of some parents and educators that addressed her, after chickenpox and hepatitis B vaccinations failed to immunize students from grades six to nine.
The success of the vaccine in clinical tests and FDA’s approval has determined more than a dozen states to consider introducing the mandatory vaccination with Gardasil. Some medical experts and watchdog groups have questioned though Merck’s active lobbying, although the company’s involvement is not a surprise, since it is for the moment the only producer of the substance. The groups and the medical experts also imply that state mandates are premature.
Sen. Kelley said she was not aware of "those external politics."
"The timing is just not right," she said, adding that she will likely introduce the bill again next year. "I decided to do this at a time when things have settled down and we can approach this in a more deliberative manner."
Gardasil is given in 3 injections over 6 months, namely at enrollment, and 2 and 6 months later. Gardasil protects against four subtypes that together account for 70 per cent of all cervical cancers and 90 per cent of genital warts. It has been shown to be more than 95-per-cent effective.
Some conservatives and parental-rights groups say such a requirement would encourage premarital sex and interfere with the way they raise their children. Some fear the HPV vaccine’s protection would boost young girls’ appetite for an early sexual life.
For other critics, it is the notion that their youthful innocence could be violated, during the course of three shots over six months, by a medical practitioner's potential sex-education lecture.
But Merck said its lobbying efforts have been aboveboard.
Merck has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group of female state legislators.
An official from Merck’s vaccine division sits on Women in Government's business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
"Cervical cancer is of particular interest to our members because it represents the first opportunity that we have to actually eliminate a cancer," said Susan Crosby, president of Women in Government.
Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Crosby also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.
But Skidmore said: "We disclosed the fact that we provide funding to this organization. We're not in any way trying to obscure that."
The New Jersey drug company, which is building a vaccine plant in Durham, could generate billions in sales if Gardasil -- at $360 for the three-shot regimen -- were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization says girls and women aged 14 to 26 should also be vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) even if they are already sexually active, because they may not yet have been infected.
Rep. Debbie Clary, a Cleveland County Republican, has no doubt that a North Carolina legislator eventually will introduce a bill requiring HPV vaccination. "I don't know if it will be this year or the next, but I'm certain it will be discussed," she said. "It's obvious that Merck is pushing for mandates."
"I think it will be a tremendous debate, because you're treading on territory that is a parent's decision," Clary said.
On June 29, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that Gardasil be placed on the childhood immunization schedule at the 11 to 12 year old visit. They also recommended that the vaccine be included in the federal Vaccines for Children Program, which would provide the vaccines free of charge to children under the age of 18 who are uninsured. Merck & Co., Inc. is a global research-driven pharmaceutical company. Established in 1891, Merck discovers, develops, manufactures and markets vaccines and medicines to address unmet medical needs.
yeah why not...if it stops the virus in men, why not(especially since it would prevent genital warts).
That won't help. Males don't carry it, they just spread it.
And they would still spread it, vaccinated or not, because the virus is spread by contact. Vaccinating males for something that is destroyed by their own immune system is worthless.
Here's a novel thought, vaccinate all dildo's too. They son't have immune systems. (yet)
No it doesn't, only SOME kinds, the kind women with certain strains of the disease get. The ones you get from the ladies with warts on their lips and faces are a different kind. :o)
>Males don't carry it<
They don't?
http://www.ncemi.org/cse/cse0807.htm
"Genital warts are a result of infection with human papillomavirus (HPV). The virus is currently considered a leading candidate as a causative agent in squamous carcinomas of both the female and male genital tracts."
It is immoral for the government to force parents to vaccinate their daughters against a disease that is not innocently (i.e. by breathing or touching a common surface) communicable to others around them.
Males experience symptoms caused by HPV. They just can't get cervical cancer from it.
As I said way back at the beginning of this thread, only whores should be forced to have this shot. THAT would probably do at least some good.
It won't do any good at all for the guys that 'go down low'.
There's something else that would do it, and the pharmaceutical companies wouldn't make a dime from it. This thing that could be done to prevent the spread of HPV would end us eliminating a lot of other problems as well.
That thing? Sexual purity.
Only briefly. Men are immune to it. It goes way on it's own if the virus should get into your bloodstream. Your immune system takes care of it.
Men spread it by contact, doesn't matter how immune they are, it's like tracking dirt into the house. Men should wash good.
That will do more to stop speading it than anything else.
The warts men get are a different strain altogether, the kind this vaccine doesn't have any effect on. The warts men get that don't go away aren't HPV at all. They are herpes.
And/Or a different strain of HPV that this vaccine has no effect on.
You have to get those ones burned off.
http://www.cdc.gov/STD/HPV/STDFact-HPV-and-men.htm
The fact that the money is reinvested in R&D doesn't change that lots of money will be made. $390 for the vaccine series is a lot whether paid by the government or insurance or private individuals.
The giveaways are just to get people familiar with it and get it being used.
Doctors routinely are given samples of various medications obviously for them to get people taking them.
Nothing particularly wrong with that but don't act like it's all charity.
As for this:
"What about vaccinating boys?
We do not yet know if the vaccine is effective in boys or men. It is possible that vaccinating males will have health benefits for them by preventing genital warts and rare cancers, such as penile and anal cancer. It is also possible that vaccinating boys/men will have indirect health benefits for girls/women. Studies are now being done to find out if the vaccine works to prevent HPV infection and disease in males. When more information is available, this vaccine may be licensed and recommended for boys/men as well."
I guess we shall see what comes of it.
Not true. Genital warts in men are caused by HPV. Herpes is a different thing altogether. It causes ulcers, not warts. And clinical trials of HPV vaccines in males are currently ongoing. I expect Gardasil to be approved in males during the next couple of years.
Yeah.
They're all tough grrrrlz.
Ream out their vaginas, abort their babies, and send 'em into combat.
You've come a long way baby.
Well, I suppose if you did not, some posters here might accuse you of child abuse.
Yup. That's exactly it. Millions of teenaged girls will be diving into back seats every Friday night once they know they don't risk cervical cancer in 30 years -- that's what's deterring them now, not AIDS, herpes, chlamydia or gonorrhea.
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