HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

[MalReynolds]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

[Off license, meaning, a doctor would have to go off record to supply it to man. What is this? A snub at the gay community? That aside, wouldn't a man want to be protected against something like that equally as much as a woman?

Or that the drug was designed, tested and approved for use by women and not men. Could be that little snag right there. No man wants penis cancer, but I'm goddamned sure I would want my drug to be tested for safety first.

EDIT: And 'off lisence' means that most insurance wouldn't cover it, the men would have to ask, etc. You make it sound like these doctors are pioneers or something.

But hey, as long as we can put gay people on a second tier even if all we're doing is making weird conspiracy theories, right?

[lord_carbo]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

When I got a chicken pox shot at a young age, I didn't even know what it was for, Chromer.

[sylvia_black]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

Or that the drug was designed, tested and approved for use by women and not men. Could be that little snag right there. No man wants penis cancer, but I'm goddamned sure I would want my drug to be tested for safety first.

lol Point taken, but then your statement like mine is only an assumption... What is the truth? I'll do a little more looking around.

EDIT: And 'off lisence' means that most insurance wouldn't cover it, the men would have to ask, etc. You make it sound like these doctors are pioneers or something.

Thanks for the correction. I must have read that wrong in my wanderings. Also, I was not trying to imply that their efforts make them pioneers. Only that, if it IS okay for men to use, "IF", then why isn't it being implemented. My fingers type faster than my brain sometime, that is my excuse. :P

Again. I will do a little more looking around on the male penile cancer thing.

But hey, as long as we can put gay people on a second tier even if all we're doing is making weird conspiracy theories, right?

Alright, so maybe not a huge conspiracy angst 'the gays', but the US government puts mind controlling substances in the water you know. :0

[stretchypanda]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

So, this has been going on in Texas for quite a while, and for a while I was impressed that our ultra-conservative governor would pass such a measure -- basically admitting that teenage girls in Texas are sexually active. But then I started listening to friends. My biggest concern with this is that Gardasil hasn't been out long enough to know its long-term effects on humans. For all we know we could be destroying these girls' reproductive systems.

My second biggest concern is that Merck is one of Governor Perry's biggest campaign contributors, which is surely true about at least some of the legislators in these other states. That means that they were able to jump right over the Texas senate and go straight to the big guy. If this had gone through the Senate, I would hope it would have been struck down.

Merck is sending a good message with their Gardasil campaign. They're not educating women, however, on what they're actually protecting against. They never once mention in their commercial that HPV is a sexually transmitted disease (and at my last gyno visit I saw a brochure in the changing room -- there wasn't a mention on the first page). They act as though this is something just floating around like the flu and that all women are at risk and that is DANGEROUS. Even my mom didn't know that you can only contract HPV through sexual contact.

And then there is the argument a friend of mine raised in her letter to the editor of the Baylor Lariat. It shouldn't be the government's job to make up for what parents should be teaching their kids. Whether that is not to have sex or to make good decisions about sex, it shouldn't be any state's job to pick up the slack.

I am all for educating women on the responsibilities regarding sex. I am even all for making Gardasil and any other vaccine readily available. I am not for forcing a new vaccination on every 12-year-old in the state of Texas simply so Merck can make huge profits.

[GuidoHunter]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

Whether that is not to have sex or to make good decisions about sex, it shouldn't be any state's job to pick up the slack.

Right, but this could also be considered a public health issue. As much as I don't like government mandates, making HPV go the way of Polio or Malaria is a pretty enticing concept.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[Chrissi]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

stretchy, it's because it's texas. You think about it. If you tell the people of texas that this vaccine is to prevent an STI, they won't want to give it to their kids. If you tell them it's just a disease that affects women, well, you're going to get a lot more support down there.

In the north these measures aren't taken - everyone knows what HPV is and what it does and why you get it and all the pamphlets state that it's an STI.... but more and more I've bee coming to realize the general population in the southern states are really dumb sometimes. Actually to me they are just backwards but that's my own opinion.

Also, on the men subject: penile cancer is FAR, FAR, FAR less common and harder to contract than cervical cancer. If we wiped out the hpv strain in women, that would probably be enough for it to start affecting everyone - even the gay community. Stuff gets around. With women vaccinated, men would also stop getting it.

PS Did you know there have been some estimates that say more than 75% of sexually active teens have HPV? HPV by itself doesn't always present any symptoms and many people have it without even knowing it. That's why it's important to get tested.

[sylvia_black]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

Okay, so here we go.

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved use of the first HPV vaccine (marketed as Gardasil®) for boys or men. There are currently no data demonstrating that the vaccine can protect males from getting genital warts or developing HPV-related cancers (such as cancer of the penis, which is rare), or that it can prevent transmission of the virus to women." (Found under "Is there an HPV vaccine for men?" at this web page.)

http://www.thehpvtest.com/HPV-for-men-FAQ.html

So Wiki's statement that: "As the drug is licensed for girls and boys aged 9 to 15 and for women aged 16 to 26, the drug has to be administered to men "off license", although many doctors are happy to oblige." ....is a very misleading and possibly a partially false statement.

Is it licensed for boys 9-15 or not?

So I checked the FDA's website and their 'fact sheet' states "The FDA has approved Gardasil for girls and women ages 9-26. It is best to get the shot before the start of sexual activity." With no mention of boys what so ever. (found under 'Who should get the HPV vaccine?')

http://www.fda.gov/womens/getthefacts/hpv.html

I can find no reference to the drug even being CONSIDERED for boys let alone men, but I did find a page showing the results of their "placebo-controlled trials" in women 16-26.

http://www.fda.gov/cder/Offices/OODP/whatsnew/gardasil.htm

Which stated: "The most common vaccination site toxicities observed for Gardasil compared to aluminum-containing placebo and saline placebo were pain (83.9% vs. 75.4% and 48.6%), swelling (25.4% vs. 15.8% and 7.3%), and erythema (24.6% vs. 18.4% and 12.1%). The most common systemic adverse events for Gardasil compared to saline placebo were fever (13.0% vs. 11.2%) and nausea (6.7% vs. 6.6%)."

Anyway... At this point I'm just going to assume that because there is no way (edited part: no FDA APPROVED way) to test for HPV in men, they are unable to do a similar "placebo-controlled trial" like they did for women. This is probably the real reason it has not been approved for men by the FDA.

(Not in fact a conspiracy. )

I should also like to state at this time that I have no real opinion on whether it is too soon to approve the drug in the first place. That is all. Bagel.

[Chrissi]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

You can test for HPV in anyone.... o.O Just not necessarily the strains that Gardasil covers.

[sylvia_black]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

You can test for HPV in anyone.... o.O Just not necessarily the strains that Gardasil covers.

You can test yes, but there is no FDA approved test. Their findings would be moot if their method was inferior to their standards in the first place.

"There is currently no FDA-approved test to detect HPV in men. That is because an effective, reliable way to collect a sample of male genital skin cells, which would allow detection of HPV, has yet to be developed." (Found under 'Is there an HPV test for men?' at this web page.)

http://www.thehpvtest.com/HPV-for-men-FAQ.html

Edit part: Even if there was another drug that vaccinated for the other kinds of HPV you speak of, the FDA would run into the same problems of testing it on men, that I'm assuming it has with Gardasil.

[Chrissi]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

Well, FDA is american - they don't rule the world.

[Chromer]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

And it's pretty funny, that only 11 states have signed the vaccine into mandatory law.

Hmm.....

[sylvia_black]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

Well, FDA is american - they don't rule the world.

Okay. I won't fight you that one.

Did anyone else want to speak up for another country other than America, who is thinking of exploring the use of this vaccine?

[stretchypanda]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

Hopefully in time someone releases another vaccine so competition kicks in and prices drop.

It's already been said somewhere that another company is working on their own vaccine, but I'm still not comfortable with forcing a vaccine on people without knowing the side effects. And Andy, polio and malaria ARE virus that can be contracted through the air. There's pretty much two instances in which a person can contract HPV through no fault of their own.

Chrissi, one of the biggest arguments against the HPV vaccine is the same as Chromer's -- the religious right is afraid that vaccinating against an STI will be just like teaching kids about condoms, that it will encourage kids to have sex. People know HPV is an STI. Hell, my teenybopper magazines ran articles at least once a year on STIs and we learned about them in health. I feel like forcing this vaccination on young girls is a huge invasion of privacy. Merck should spend more time figuring out how to make it available to girls who need it but can't afford it, but not by mandating that EVERYONE get it. Make it affordable.

[jewpinthethird]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

Chrissi, one of the biggest arguments against the HPV vaccine is the same as Chromer's -- the religious right is afraid that vaccinating against an STI will be just like teaching kids about condoms, that it will encourage kids to have sex.

Its that kind of mentality that I don't understand, which is why I agree with you, it's their right to believe it, therefore it should be the parent's choice. If they choose to remain ignorant then they should suffer the consequences. It's called natural selection.

[lord_carbo]

Re: HPV Vaccine For Girls Now Mandatory

Chrissi, one of the biggest arguments against the HPV vaccine is the same as Chromer's -- the religious right is afraid that vaccinating against an STI will be just like teaching kids about condoms, that it will encourage kids to have sex.

You don't need to tell your kids what you're giving them. They'll do it without question, or if they ask questions, hit them and/or lie to them. Whatever gets the job done.

"Jessica, take this."
"Why?"
"Don't talk to me like that, bitch. You'll take this because I told you to."