Vaccinator
Fathers, protect your daughters from the onslaught of that perverter of all that is right, good, pure, and just, namely, the HPV vaccine! The call to arms has been sounded from belfries across the nation, to the despair of health care providers who witness another arm in their arsenal against cervical cancer cast to the wayside. The feeling of utter impotence on their parts is both frustrating and devastating, in the face of an ever-mounting body of data that appears to indicate the resounding efficacy of a vaccine that is a relentless adversary in the fight against cervical cancer, when it is unleashed in a timely fashion. Getting down to the brass tacks of the matter, perhaps you, the reader, will become convinced, and lend your daughters to the safe haven and caring hands of those who would stop a virus, the human papilloma virus (HPV), and its progression to something far more sinister dead in their tracks.
Cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer among women, and it has been associated with HPV. The general public has not been adequately schooled on that score, and remains ignorant as to just how diffuse HPV infection is. The statistics are staggering, and go something like this. Twenty-five percent of persons between 14 and 19 years of age and 45% of those between 20 and 24 years are infected with genital HPV, with more than 80% of both men and women in the
The hero of the moment, called the “Vaccinator,” for purposes of literary color and license, but commonly known as the HPV vaccine, has received a great deal of bad press, with the public continuing to be misinformed in many cases. So, the record must be set straight here, and then, perhaps, heads of households will be more inclined to offer their daughters on its preventive altar in exchange for a welcomed and precipitous reduction in the body count. The HPV vaccine has been marketed by Merck & Co., Inc. since June 2006 under the name Gardasil®, and it is effective against the four high-risk types of HPV. Women between the ages of 9 and 26 years of age are targeted for vaccination in order to prevent genital warts and cervical, vulvar, and vaginal cancer. They should be vaccinated before their first sexual intercourse, because it is a sad, but true, “fact of life” that HPV infection is usually acquired within months after first sexual intercourse. While the vaccine is effective in immunocompromised women, the same cannot be said for pregnant women. A silver lining is the fact that women with cervical disease from one high-risk HPV type may be vaccinated against the other high-risk types. Gardasil is administered intramuscularly at 0, 2, and 6 months, and the vaccine series does not have to be restarted in its entirety if, girls being girls, a dose is missed. Let the buyer beware, however! Fainting spells may occur in adolescents immediately after vaccination. So, the rule of thumb is for the physician to observe the “vaccinee” for 15 minutes after vaccination. Wow, that was a lot of information! Exclusion of still another piece of stark reality could be construed as criminal, so it needs be said that abstinence from intercourse until marriage is no substitute for the HPV vaccine, as sexual abuse or an infected marriage partner make having been a “good girl” bad.
As the Vaccinator waits in the wings for the raging debate over whether to vaccinate preadolescents or not to play itself out, parents of young women should take no comfort in biding their time with a less is better mentality. Even with the jury out, some verdicts are forgone conclusions.
ã 2009, Albert M. Balesh, M.D. All rights reserved.
posted by Dr. Al at
7/31/2009 07:10:00 AM
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