Currently, only girls and young woman can receive the Gardisil HPV vaccine. This has led to many people wondering, why are only girls targeted, can't boys spread and get HPV as well? As mentioned earlier in our blog, HPV has been viewed as a strictly female problem. While it's true that men can't get cervical cancer, they can still get HPV and they can still spread it to women. Therefore the vaccine should be available for both boymales and females.
Gardisil is being heavily marketed as the anti-cancer vaccine for women, much less than it is being marketed as an STI vaccine. So it automatically is seen as a vaccine for females. Apparently, in 2009, Gardisil will be available for boys, although the primary reason for this would be to slow the risk of cervical cancer. Currently, there is no screening test for HPV for males, the only way of knowing whether a boy/ man has HPV is if they have genital warts.
One mother had this to say about the possibility of vaccinating her sons: "You don’t want to say it’s just the girls’ problem. But my sons won’t contract cervical cancer. And genital warts are treatable. I’m very skeptical. What risks will I expose them to?”.
A competing vaccine, developed by GlaxoSmithKline to protect females between the ages of 10 and 55, is currently being reviewed. The company is studying its vaccine, Cervarix, in boys as well as girls in Finland. Cervarix does not protect against genital warts. Boys are being included in the trial to see whether vaccinating them will help eradicate cervical cancer.
Another mother was quoted in a New York Times article saying, "If there was a vaccine that sons could get that would get rid of breast cancer, most parents wouldn’t hesitate. But cervical cancer is the ‘sex cancer. ” If the Gardisil vaccine does in fact become available for boys, or if the Cervarix vaccine is approved, will there be enough incentive for boys and young men to get vaccinated? Or will HPV still be seen as a female problem?
Reference
Hoffman, Jon (2008). Vaccinating boys for girls sake?. The New York Times.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
This is a great blog, and a hot public health topic! Awesome job, guys! Here are my thoughts:
Since I'm very pro-vaccination, I would support vaccination for HPV in both young girls and young guys.
First of all, I don't think it's technically correct to call Gardasil an anti-cancer vaccine. It's a vaccine that is supposed to prevent infection with cancer-causing strains of HPV. There are over 100 strains of HPV, most of which DO NOT cause cancer. Only 4 or 5 of these HPV subtypes cause cancer, and those are the ones people would be vaccinated for. Most people (guys and girls) will experience transient HPV infections throughout their lifetime. These HPV infections are not related to sexual activity, and will not cause genital warts or cervical cancer. Your immune system takes care of these infections, and chances are that you will never know you've been infected with HPV (unless your doc orders an HPV antibody titer for some reason).
It's true that most cases of cervical cancer are caused by those 4 or 5 subtypes of HPV, but there are other factors that can cause it as well, mainly smoking. So even though you might be vaccinated with Gardasil, if you're a really unlucky female smoker, there's a small chance you could still end up with cervical cancer.
Timing is really key with respect to when the vaccine is delivered. I'm pretty sure that around 13 or 14 years is the best time to git 'er done, hopefully before one has had intercourse or a lot of sexual partners. The vaccine is COMPLETELY INEFFECTIVE if a person has already been exposed to the cancer-causing strains of HPV. That's why it doesn't make sense to me to vaccinate older women and men, especially when the number of sexual partners is high.
Also, there's no cure for genital warts - they're like the gift that keeps on giving. You're stuck with them for life.
Something should probably be said about changing behaviours, as well. Promiscuity dramatically increases the risk that you could be exposed to one of the bad strains of HPV. If you're a girl, it's probably really important to find out how many partners your guy has had before you do the hibbity-dibbity, since the guy could be a carrier and have no symptoms.
One last thought, strictly my personal opinion: If you're a girl, and you're not promiscuous, or don't plan on being promiscuous, and you don't sleep with guys who have had a high number of sexual partners, you probably don't need the vaccine. But seeing as how guys tend to LIE to girls about how many partners they've had, I think everyone should be vaccinated.
Good luck with the blog!!!
Great topic! I think you've brough up some very important points.
Just to add to the topic. A lot of information that has not been heavily reported on involves HPV in people that have anal sex. This is important in all women and men who are active in this area. Having a vaccine for men/boys would be incredibly beneficial, especially those counting themselves in these categories. It's been shown that men that count themselves in these categories have a much greater risk of anal cancer than those who do not: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/515608
http://www.stdjournal.com/pt/re/std/abstract.00007435-200308000-00008.htm;jsessionid=JFGH6LrR7TYmyLrpRMGLlbqW9v1PtdJW720KGGQgYvm2LyGM1GZ8!-985563194!181195629!8091!-1
I guess it's just a matter of more people opening their eyes to what people are actually doing and not just placing the onus on women to get vaccinated.
Thanks for your comments! Luke, I can understand your argument about the anti-cancer vaccine, as Gardisil does vaccinate against the HPV strains that cause cancer. My argument is that the vaccine should be marketed to both women and men, as both sexes can play a role in reducing HPV cases, and in turn, cervical cancer. Thank you for the other points you raised though, they may end up future discussion topics!
Todd I appreciates your comments about anal sex, and how this affects both men and women. It is true that both sexes are equally responsible for everything to do with STIs and protecting themselves!
Post a Comment