Posted on 08/01/2007 11:01:53 AM PDT by mngran
Controversy continues to plague efforts to protect young women against cervical cancer by vaccinating them against HPV, the human papillomavirus, but one leading scientist's discovery could throw a monkey wrench into the debate.
"We found HPV under the fingernails of young men," said Dr. Laura Koutsky, a University of Washington epidemiologist.
Koutsky led some of the pioneering research and clinical trials that resulted in an HPV vaccine, Merck's Gardasil, recently approved for use in girls and young women. The reason her fingernail finding is a potential bombshell has to do with why the vaccine is controversial.
HPV, which is the leading cause of most cervical cancers, is primarily a sexually transmitted disease. Opponents of HPV vaccines believe that immunizing girls against this virus sends the message that engaging in sex at a young age is acceptable behavior.
The presence of HPV under fingernails, she said, at the very least suggests another possible route of transmission. It's an additional route of infection, she said, that could explain some previous apparent anomalies such as HPV infection in infants and young girls who had not yet engaged in sexual activity.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com ...
The article is an obviously “pro-mandatory” vaccination piece. If I mistook your comments to be supporting the whole concept of the article I apologies.
You have as much right to your opinion as anyone else but if anyone is supporting “coersive” or “mandatory” vaccinations, then I think they are “nanny staters”.
Not touching that one :)
They don’t care about anything but their profit margins.
nonetheless, it should not be mandatory.
Government has no business mandating such a vaccine. Period.
Shoot, I didn’t even think of that! It was a series question :-).
How about “neck cancers”? Are you talking about esophagal cancer?
I think all young boys and men should be vaccinated immediately......infact, it should be a state law.....
The best protection from cervical cancer is yearly pap smears.
Clearly.
The herd isn’t immune. There is migration to college and populations that have not been vaccinated. The men are carriers with their own risk factors.
my other jibe is I do get very sick of primarily men telling girls and women what they HAVE to do....like, preventing pregnancy is woman's work, and men shouldn't have to worry about it....(NOT!)
I respect what you've been through and how you feel. However, you should respect that it should be up to no one bu the parents to decide to which UNnecessary vaccines their children are subject. Cancer is not a communicable disease and this is not some huge public health emergency. This vaccine is pretty much untested, and no one knows the efficacy or the longterm side effects. So, to turn your question around, why would anyone want their daughters and mothers and sisters to become guinea pigs for a pharmaceutical company? JMO.
In America, you have to prove your children are vaccinated prior to enrolling them in school.
Public health programs are more complicated than simple personal choice.
Cities have to sterilize the public water supply.
New homes have to connect to approved septic systems.
Certain employees are required to submit to anual TB testing.
Food service workers are required to submit to testing during outbreaks of food related illness.
Public health is not the same as nannyism. It is the primary cause of increased longevity around the world. The damage to the Public Health System caused by the granting of civil rights to the HIV virus will haunt us for years.
The reason some people are screaming about vaccination for HPV is that it is perceived to be a sexually transmitted disease. These howls of protest threaten to give HPV the same civil rights that HIV enjoys. The significance of finding HPV under fingernails shows that it may be spread independent of sexual practice. A chaste young woman could be exposed to the HPV virus and eventually develop cancer from the use of tampons. She may also pass on this virus to her monogomous husband when she marries.
Sorry. My dirty mind strikes again.
How about “neck cancers”? Are you talking about esophagal cancer?
I was talking primarily about oropharyngeal and laryngeal cancers, which, according to this particular study, had the highest incidence of HPV 16 in tissue samples - 68.7% in laryngeal samples - but the study mentioned the entire oral cavity.
Incidentally, the same study also found that smoking and drinking rates were much higher in the people with the HPV 16 infected tissue samples.
I absolutely don't believe this. They need to test everyone in the country for the HPV virus, if they believe that 25% of women are infected. It sounds like they are in league with the vaccine companies, in order for the vaccine companies to make money. Does the CDC get a kickback?
Women aren’t the only ones who get it nor are they they only ones at risk for cancer from it.
But calling it a “women’s issue” politicizes it like AIDS/HIV.
If HPV was so costly in the form of costs of care and treatment, we would see health insurance carriers urging their policyholders to be immunized.
I agree with a previous poster: it is not any of the government’s business if I force my daughter to get the shots or not.
That’s very interesting. Thanks!
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