[mnehring]

One of the issues with the media coverage and arguments is they don't tell you that HPV is not just a sexually transmitted disease, there are other ways to catch HPV.

http://www.wdxcyber.com/nvulva04.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/

Children can actually pick up HPV when they are born. There are over 100 strains of HPV, only 30 of which are known to be transmitted sexually.

I still am against mandatory vaccines at this point, but I think the other side is also misinformed about what HPV is.

[fr_freak]

One of the issues with the media coverage and arguments is they don't tell you that HPV is not just a sexually transmitted disease, there are other ways to catch HPV.

I'm not a medical professional or anything, but here goes: HPV is the family of viruses that cause warts. The various strains of HPV are specific to certain parts of the body. So, a wart on your nose is a strain of HPV, but that strain is not thought to be able to infect other parts of the body. So, even if there were..ahem... nose-to-genital contact, the wart on your nose would not infect the genitals. Now, even within the number of strains that do infect the genital area, only a specific few are thought to be associated with increased risk for cervical cancer (a couple of which this vaccine targets).

So, saying that so many strains of HPV can be transmitted by other than sexual contact is irrelevant to this situation. The only strains that cause genital warts (or increase risk for cervical cancer) ARE transmitted by genital-to-genital contact (although the possibility of an indirect transmission, such as sharing a towel, has been discussed).

[brwnsuga]

Hasn't research shown that the vaccine is not effective agains all strains of HPV? Since the vaccine is effective from ages 11-26 what about encouraging young ladies to abstain at least until they reach their majority and get the vaccine before they become sexually active.