This Used to Be About Women’s Health
February 8th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Now that Perry’s infamous executive order has turned the HPV vaccine into a political issue, misinformation can’t be far behind.
Never one to disappoint, Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) quickly volunteered his reasoning:
The research I have come across indicates there are at least 100 strains of the Human Papillomavirus and the vaccination, Gardasil, only treats four of them. The American Cancer Society reports most women do not get cervical cancer from HPV and the National Institutes of Health report more than 90% of all HPV cases are harmless and go away without treatment.
This is, of course, misleading, by virtue of cherry-picked facts. Like many conservatives who oppose the vaccination requirement for religious reasons or small-government ideology, Patrick wants to bend the science to his side.
Let’s cut that off at the pass. Drawing from the CDC’s website and an informative Q&A that the Washington Post did with Dr. Richard Schlegel, one of the vaccine’s developers, here are some of the important facts:
— Patrick is right that there are dozens of strains of HPV, many of which do not cause cancer. But the vaccine does protect against the four strains that account for nearly 70 percent of all cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts infections. It’s not perfect, but it’s a huge step in the battle against cancer, nonetheless.
— Patrick is also right that most cases of HPV do not lead to cancer. The majority of infections, according to Dr. Schlegel, “resolve spontaneously” within one year, and “much less than one percent” of infected women have an increased chance of developing cervical cancer. However, since half of all sexually active people get HPV at some point, even a miniscule percentage leads to nearly 10,000 new cases of cervical cancer each year.
— Because the vaccine does not offer 100 percent protection, women need to continue having regular pap tests. It is not likely, as some have feared, to lead to insurance companies refusing to cover pap/wellness tests in the future.
— Rumors that the vaccine lasts only a few years are based on inconclusive evidence. Clinical tests have lasted only five years so Merck, the vaccine’s developer (GlaxoSmithKline is working on one, too), can claim effectiveness of only “at least five years.” Time will tell if the vaccine lasts for a lifetime or if boosters will be needed.
— Similarly, the vaccine is recommended for women between the ages of 11 and 26. The CDC says it can be given to girls as young as 9. But as Dr. Schlegel points out, “Women older than 26 can certainly gain benefit from vaccination, especially if they have had limited sexual contact.” The key to maximum protection is that girls must receive the vaccine before they are exposed to the virus, i.e., sexual activity begins. The age limits are there to promote efficacy, not to avoid some mysterious side effect that afflicts only women over 25.
— Once a woman becomes sexually active, there is no harm in receiving the vaccine. But it protects against only HPV strains that she has not already contracted.
— Condoms are an extremely poor protection against HPV. And, obviously, the HPV vaccine doesn’t protect against any other sexually transmitted maladies.
— No serious side effects are showing up in the trials, and the vaccine is non-infectious, i.e., you don’t run the risk of catching the virus a la the flu shot.
It’s worth noting that some organizations, such as the American College of Pediatricians, recommend that teens not receive the vaccine until they begin having sexual intercourse, which is more than a little strange until you realize their mission statement says they “recognize the basic father-mother family unit, within the context of marriage, to be the optimal setting for childhood development.”
Whether the government should require parents to vaccinate kids against a non-airborne disease is a whole ‘nother story. The same goes for Merck’s influence in Perry’s decision. But when the science behind the vaccine is called into question, let’s not leave the numbers in Dan Patrick’s hands.
