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Related: About this forumDose of Reality HPV is epidemic, which is odd since it is largely preventable
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/349370/description/Dose_of_RealityThere are two vaccines that guard against human papillomavirus, and they are in rare company among medical inventions the vaccines prevent cancer. Only the hepatitis B vaccine can make the same claim. Cancer-causing HPV can trigger abnormal cell growth on the cervix, and cervical cancer still kills up to 4,000 U.S. women each year. The virus is also implicated in cancers occurring in the anus and the throat. All told, according to a 2011 study, 29 percent of sexually active U.S. girls and women carry a potentially cancer-causing HPV infection.
Back in 2006 and 2009, when the HPV vaccines Gardasil and Cervarix came onto the market, health officials dreamed of halting the spread of HPV, which is sexually transmitted, in a single generation. Scientists call such blanket coverage herd immunity in which a pathogen gets vaccinated into oblivion, becoming so rare that even unvaccinated people are protected.
With such heady potential, Gardasil, developed by Merck, and Cervarix, created by GlaxoSmithKline, should be an easy sell. They rev up a potent immunity against HPV 16 and 18, the two types of the virus that account for most cases of cervical cancer. Gardasil also prevents most genital warts. The immunity the vaccines provide is many-fold better than the weak protection engendered by a run-in with the virus itself, and since approval, both vaccines have proven safe. A study of nearly 190,000 girls and women, published in 2012 in Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, found that the shots most common side effects were mild skin infections and fainting.
But the hope for herd immunity against HPV anytime soon is fading fast in most of the West. By 2011, only 53 percent of U.S. teenage girls from 13 to 17, a target group for the vaccines, had received them.
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Dose of Reality HPV is epidemic, which is odd since it is largely preventable (Original Post)
xchrom
Apr 2013
OP
rexcat
(3,622 posts)1. Merck has a second generation HPV vaccine...
in Phase III clinical trials. The first generation vaccine covered 4 subtypes of the HPV.
From Merck's website (http://www.merck.com/research/pipeline/home.html): HPV-related cancers, HPV Vaccine (9 valent) (V503) is an investigational human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine that targets nine HPV subtypes: 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58. V503 is being evaluated for prevention of HPV.
womanofthehills
(8,584 posts)2. 3,499 complaints of serious side effects
Commonly reported side effects:
Blood clots
Seizure
Paralysis
Bells palsy
Guillain-Barre syndrome
http://www.awkolaw.com/defective-drugs/gardasil/
mzteris
(16,232 posts)3. commonly reported side effect of HPV
Death
flamingdem
(39,304 posts)4. Problem is that the vaccine is only available to women under 26
or thereabouts.
And the infection rates among boomers is quite high!
xchrom
(108,903 posts)5. This vaccine needs to be given pre-exposure.
The older the person the greater the chance of exposure -
flamingdem
(39,304 posts)6. But if a woman tests negative she should then be able to get it
but it's not recommended for older women?