Should HPV Vaccine Be Mandatory?
States Consider That Idea, Some Parents Worry Requirement Could Send Wrong Message
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Play CBS Video Video Cancer Prevention Vaccine After the government approved the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, parents and local health officials are grappling with who should be required to get it. Sharyl Atkisson reports.
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But she and her friends may be among the first students required by law to get vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease, one that can cause cervical cancer. CBS News correspondent Sharyl Atkisson reports.
“It makes sense to get this done. I guess it’s only a question of what the timing is,” says Ellsworth.
The vaccine is Gardasil. You may have seen ads for it on television (“You could be one less). It can prevent human papilloma virus, known as HPV, and it's approved for girls as young as 9.
About 6 million Americans get HPV every year, and more than 10,000 end up with cervical cancer.
“If you are sexually active, in a pretty short period of time your chances of getting exposed to this virus are pretty high. So the goal was to recommended its use in younger teens or preteens,” says Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Washington, D.C., where Kira lives, may soon add the HPV vaccine to the list of necessary school shots - starting with girls entering 6th grade. Until now, vaccines were only mandated for diseases spread through things like coughs and runny noses. This would be the first required for a disease only spread through sexual contact.
“That's your daughter, that should be a decision that the parents should make,” said Lisa Dickson, a mother.
“It's a little tricky that this a cancer connected to sexuality, it makes it more complicated,” said Ellsworth.
Parents would be able to "opt out" of the shots. Some worry it's too early to be addressing sexually transmitted diseases with their daughters. Others say the vaccine could be seen as a license to have sex.
But D.C. councilman David Catania dismisses all that. He's sponsoring the vaccine bill.
“The legislation doesn't require that the conversation about the vaccine, center on why you are receiving the vaccine. As I’ve said before, this vaccine no more encourages sexual activity than a tetanus shot encourages you to step on a rusty nail,” says Catania.
It's an especially important issue in Washington, D.C., which has the highest cervical cancer rate in the United States.
At least 11 states are considering similar laws including California, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, South Carolina, Washinton, D.C., and Maryland.
But there are caveats. Merck, the makers of Gardasil, says it's 98 percent effective, but only against certain kinds of HPV, and women studied were only followed for five years.
Because the new vaccine is so new, moms like Carla Hillery are wary.
“I would like to wait awhile and see if there are any side effects, you know, it was a new vaccine,” she said.
For her part, Kelley Ellsworth has decided on balance, it's best that her daughter go ahead and get the shot.
“They get sex education in the 5th grade anyway, so it's not like they've never heard of sex,” she said.
The series of shots cost $360, and are covered by most health plans.
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See all 37 CommentsIf the government cared about the American public we would not be eating genetically modified food, giving our babies antibiotic-laced milk, or preparing to eat meat from cloned animals.
Posted by GEN-SIMONE at 10:58 AM : Jan 22, 2007"
Hmmm... I've made it almost 50yrs old & haven't had to "thank you" yet. Smells to me like you work for the drug companies that are pushing this drug. It also smells to me like you had way too much s**ual activity when you were younger & you are now worried about some of those "Coyote Mornings." Well, don't try to use your own indiscretions as a warning to me or others to force another chemical into us.
btljce got it right when he/she posted: "The country overflowing with drugs has the highest number of "sick" people in the world..."
Merck "endorsed" politicians pushing this drug onto American citizens through law are the worst kind of drug pusher who's goal is to get us addicted to the "legal" drugs.
Using the American Cancer Society to "scare" us is just one of their underhanded ways to get us into their customer base.
These drug companies use reputable organizations and paid off politicians to get us as citizens dependant on them to keep the money flowing their way.
The country overflowing with drugs has the highest number of "sick" people in the world. Every year more "syndromes and diseases" are invented or made up by drug companies so they can make more drugs which make them even more money.
Get greedy, lowlife politicians to pass laws to force us to take their potions to guarantee income and you've got the #1 nation in the world controlled by drug companies.
Islamic terrorists are NOT our worst enemy.
That's my point as well. Any time the government comes up with a brilliant "new improved plan" for my health or my family's, I'm extremely wary.
It's hard to trust a government that approved DES, allowed the promotion of cigarettes as being safe, allows billions of tons of chemicals to be dumped into the environment, forced sterilization on black girls & radiation testing on children...The goes on w/the atrocities our government has sanctioned.
There needs to be more investigation into this vacine, it should NOT be mandatory (NO vacine should be- what happened to "freedom of choice"?!) Parents shouldn't BLINDLY allow their child to have ANY chemical injected into their child. By allowing the government to make decisions about your child's s**ual health you're giving up your right as a parent to set the guidelines in your home for what is acceptable behaviour.
This is up there w/laws saying you can't spank your child- it's the systematic take over of your job as a parent to raise your child in your own home. What next an anti-communist style- "Hey kids turn your parents in for not getting you vacinated, win a trip to Disneyland!"
When will they have a shot available for men?
If you think your little princess doesn't talk or fool around by 5th, 6th or 7th grade, you are mistaken and nieve. Do the right thing and protect them.
If they get raped by someone and contract HPV you will have missed the chance to protect them.
The bad thing is a man can be a carrier of the disease and not show signs but still pass it on.
Just like venereal warts. Same goes for women, except it will show in a pap.
If you cannot bring yourself to help your child in such a way, you are an unfit parent.
It's just a matter of time before they discover the joys of the discovery channel. So do the right thing.
Besides, parents, your child already gets the Hepatitis B vaccine as a part of their vaccine load, and guess what! its a STD! Yes, thats right, you can get it through ***. Just because it affects the liver, not the genitals, doesn't mean it isn't transmitted sexually. Would you deny your child the HIV vaccine when it finally gets developed? Would you tell your child, "nope, sorry, having the *** talk was too awkward for me so instead of telling you about *** and giving you these life-saving vaccines I just skipped the whole thing and now you're gonna die."
I have to agree with katia327 that five years really isn't a long enough time to say that it is safe to get. Just like the Vioxx case and others like it, how do we know that 10 or 20 years or so down the road some awful side effect will not show up such as infertility?
I believe it is way too early to be using this vaccine and the government SHOULD keep their noses out of it. It appears that the government is trying to get more and more control every day over all of us. Our freedoms stated in the Constitution and the first Ten Amendments are slowly disappearing. This vaccine should NOT be forced upon us and more testing NEEDS to be done before it being released to the public.
In the meantime we should make sure to get pap smears and teach our children (rather than just the schools doing it) about *** and its consequences.
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