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Israeli doctor heads Merck team that has developed vaccine against cervical cancer
ISRAEL21c ^ | June 14, 2006 | Staff

Posted on 06/23/2006 7:21:19 AM PDT by veronica

An Israeli-born doctor stands at the head of team from pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc. who announced this week the FDA approval of the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer

Senior director of Clinical Research, Merck Research Laboratories Dr. Eliav Barr, originally from Haifa, said about bout the genetically engineered vaccine Gardasil, "This is the first time we have been able to state that administration of the vaccine is going to have an effect on cervical cancer."

In the United States, almost 10,000 women develop cervical cancer each year, leading to 3,000 deaths. In the developing world, the problem is far worse, probably because women are less likely to get screenings that can catch unusual growths before they become cancerous. Worldwide, cervical cancer kills 300,000 women a year.

Almost all the cases of cervical cancer are caused by infection with the human papilloma virus, or HPV, which causes normal cells to multiply out of control. Some strains of HPV lead to cancer (two strains account for 70% of cervical cancers), and others cause genital warts.

Because cervical cancer does not occur in women who have not contracted HPV, Merck, under Barr's guidance, has developed what is essentially the world's first cancer vaccine.

Public health experts called the Gardasil vaccine a major advance against the disease. "This vaccine is a significant advance in the protection of women's health in that it strikes at the infections that are the root cause of many cervical cancers," acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach told Reuters.

Given in three doses over six months, Gardasil targets four HPV types believed to cause more than 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts. The vaccine was approved for use in girls and women ages 9 to 26, Merck said.

Barr started his medical career as a cardiologist. So it was quite a shift in the mid-1990s when his employer, Merck, asked Barr to join a team that was developing an HPV vaccine.

"I had to go look up what HPV meant," Barr, 42, told The Intelligencer. "This is about as far as you can get from medicine."

Barr said he's overwhelmed by the feeling that he's helped develop something that will save millions of lives.

"It's very difficult to describe," Barr said. "One gets very emotional. It's really a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing."

The biggest challenge for Gardasil comes because of the target market: adolescent girls. HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, and some 20 million American men and women have it. To prevent women from getting cervical cancer, women must be inoculated before they become sexually active. But for some parents and religious groups, that might be a touchy question.

Merck's Barr says that won't be a problem. "You have to understand what's at stake here," he told Forbes. "Regardless of your background, as a parent, you want to be able to protect your child against cancer."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events
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To: Antoninus
Thanks so much for being such an eloquent spokesperson for the Culture of Death.
The real spokespeople for the culture of death are those like you who want to deny the use of a vaccine that can save lives because it is a sexually transmitted disease... If your hell exists , there is a very how spot there waiting for people like you!
241 posted on 06/24/2006 11:55:29 AM PDT by Alama
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To: Antoninus

Sorry, your people, the obscurantist fanatics are the one who don't undertand...

And no number of ave are going to save you...


242 posted on 06/24/2006 11:56:26 AM PDT by Alama
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To: Alama
The real spokespeople for the culture of death are those like you who want to deny the use of a vaccine that can save lives because it is a sexually transmitted disease... If your hell exists , there is a very how spot there waiting for people like you!

Yawn. Point me toward one post of mine where I said people should be denied the use of this vaccine. Otherwise, stop writing checks your butt can't cash.
243 posted on 06/24/2006 12:19:47 PM PDT by Antoninus (I don't vote for liberals -- regardless of party.)
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To: nmh
If someone is raped, they should be punished. I don't understand why this is such an issue.

Ooookay...

Common sense should kick in at some point ... .

Let us know when it does.

244 posted on 06/24/2006 1:20:17 PM PDT by Ichneumon (Ignorance is curable, but the afflicted has to want to be cured.)
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To: veronica

So blame the Joooooooooooooz.

/s

It's great there is a new vaccine, thank God for the scientists. It's not great that it's being pushed down school parents' throats.


245 posted on 06/24/2006 1:22:14 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck
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To: linda_22003

Perhaps for having sex before marriage? Some Asian tribes do this.


246 posted on 06/24/2006 1:32:19 PM PDT by Doctor Stochastic (Vegetabilisch = chaotisch ist der Charakter der Modernen. - Friedrich Schlegel)
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To: nmh
"Rape happens. Should a male wait - of course! If someone is raped, they should be punished. I don't understand why this is such an issue."

Ok. The way that reads may be different from how you meant it. It sounds like you are saying that those who get raped deserve it, that they should be punished. Was this a typing error? I know typing errors happen and I have typed things that that said something I didn't mean to say. What say you?

247 posted on 06/24/2006 3:56:38 PM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman (Gas up your tanks!!)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman

I assume he knows how to construct a sentence in English, and in English, it clearly says the victim of rape should be punished.


248 posted on 06/25/2006 8:07:00 AM PDT by linda_22003
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To: linda_22003

"I assume he knows how to construct a sentence in English, and in English, it clearly says the victim of rape should be punished."

I hear ya, but I'm trying to let her (she's a woman) explain her position. Let it not be said that we didn't give her an opportunity to correct a mistake if one indeed was made, and so on...

:)


249 posted on 06/25/2006 8:11:09 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman (Gas up your tanks!!)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman

Without picking up on "her" sex, I've read her other posts, and having done so, it's hard to see that one as a mistake. It's quite in line with "her" general tone.


250 posted on 06/25/2006 8:13:43 AM PDT by linda_22003
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To: linda_22003
Without picking up on "her" sex, I've read her other posts, and having done so, it's hard to see that one as a mistake. It's quite in line with "her" general tone.

Quite... I don't know what is more outrageous... This last remark or bemoaming the fact that the vaccine would save the lives of women who didn't stay virgins until their marriage... On par IMO...
251 posted on 06/25/2006 10:14:46 AM PDT by Alama
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To: linda_22003

"Without picking up on "her" sex, I've read her other posts, and having done so, it's hard to see that one as a mistake. It's quite in line with "her" general tone."

Well, I can't say I disagree with your take. I just wanted to let her answer the charges; as she has posted a bit since I asked her, with no reply... I think the answer is becoming clearer.


252 posted on 06/25/2006 10:28:09 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman (Gas up your tanks!!)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman

That's "Christian love" for you. Not the type I was raised with, but I expect she and I belong to different denominations. ;) And I can thank God for that.


253 posted on 06/25/2006 10:38:38 AM PDT by linda_22003
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To: nmh
Your lack of a response denying you meant that rape victims deserve punishment when you said,

"If someone is raped, they should be punished. I don't understand why this is such an issue."

clearly indicates you did mean it. What a sick, sick world-view.

254 posted on 06/27/2006 5:07:36 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman (Gas up your tanks!!)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman

"Your lack of a response denying you meant that rape victims deserve punishment when you said,
"If someone is raped, they should be punished. I don't understand why this is such an issue."

clearly indicates you did mean it. What a sick, sick world-view."

Huh?

Clearly you have a severe reading and comprehension problem as well as a LACK of common sense.

"If someone is raped, they should be punished. I don't understand why this is such an issue."

Selective replies don't change what I say.

Let me make it clear for someone like YOU:

When a person is raped, the RAPIST should be punished.

Actually your dislike of me is showing. You want to read in all kinds of stuff to validate your sick view of me.
Does THAT bother me? Not in the least!


255 posted on 06/27/2006 8:04:06 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God) !)
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To: nmh
"Clearly you have a severe reading and comprehension problem as well as a LACK of common sense."

As it was YOU who didn't respond when I asked you nicely to clarify what your post meant, the fault lies with you.

"Let me make it clear for someone like YOU:

When a person is raped, the RAPIST should be punished."

You didn't say that, and you didn't respond when asked to clarify.

"Actually your dislike of me is showing."

I was the politest person here in regard to your statement. I asked you nicely if you had made some sort of typo and didn't actually mean to say that those who get raped deserve to get punished. I told you I too have made typos that said things I didn't mean (or even the exact opposite). I gave you an ample opportunity to clarify and correct your mistake. I was being sincere. You didn't respond. As you had responded to other threads long after I posted my request for clarification, it was logical you were ducking the issue.

"You want to read in all kinds of stuff to validate your sick view of me."

I didn't read anything into what you wrote. You said,

"If someone is raped, they should be punished. I don't understand why this is such an issue."

There was no indication at all that you were talking about the rapist. None. Especially in the context of this thread, which is about a vaccination to prevent the spread of a sexually transmitted disease. Don't you agree that it would be a nice thing to have for a woman in case she got raped?

Don't blame others for you own statements. Take a little responsibility.
256 posted on 06/27/2006 8:18:33 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman (Gas up your tanks!!)
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To: CarolinaGuitarman

Wading through your fabricated reasoning was not something I have time for.

"Don't blame others for you own statements. Take a little responsibility."

I agree, YOU should start practicing what YOU preach and add stop lying. You'd feel better about yourself.


257 posted on 06/27/2006 10:00:30 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God) !)
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To: nmh

"Wading through your fabricated reasoning was not something I have time for."

I fabricated nothing. You said that those who get raped should be punished. I asked for clarification, and you didn't provide any. I was not the only one who read it that way; everybody did. I was the one who asked you politely to clarify so you could clear up your name. Your response today does nothing to do that. It's too little, too late.

It was your mistake, not ours.

"I agree, YOU should start practicing what YOU preach and add stop lying."

Where did I lie? Put up or shut up. I wrote EXACTLY what you posted. You wrote this,

"If someone is raped, they should be punished. I don't understand why this is such an issue."

How is posting this, and asking you to clarify, a lie?


258 posted on 06/27/2006 10:09:47 AM PDT by CarolinaGuitarman (Gas up your tanks!!)
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To: Alama
By now I must say I won't cry if your daughter catch this cancer!

I know you're still steaming about being banned, and so you will read this.

Your quote above only confirms my assessment of you as one sick bastard.

259 posted on 06/28/2006 7:42:32 AM PDT by Petronski (I just love that woman.)
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