should kids be required to be vaccinated against HPV?

[kane]

I just read a story that said in Texas and now Illinois they are going to start requiring all girls age 11-12 to have the HPV Vaccine before they can go to school. From what I understand HPV has been found to a cause of some forms of cervical cancers. It is an STD and can only be spread through sexual contacts. I guess guys can get it, but only causes a rash, the girls are the ones that are the most danger.

So a friend of mine and I were talking about this the other day and he thinks it is wrong that they are forcing the girls to have this vaccine since it's not like the flu or measles that you can catch just by talking to someone. I don't think it's a bad idea, however it is a new vaccine and we don't know the full extent of any long term side effects, so I think it should be more of a voluntary type of thing. The way the articles are written it almost sounds like the drug company Merck is pressuring these schools into using it. That's a pretty scary thought if true.

What do you think?

[Rhesus]

We are doing it here in nl. It will save lives.

[ytcracker]

ya hpv is the common cold of sex

guys its harmless unless its the warts kind
otherwise theres like 5 strains that cause cancer out of the 80 or whatever that exists

[Rhesus]

A controlled trial of a human papillomavirus type 16 vaccine.

* Koutsky LA,
* Ault KA,
* Wheeler CM,
* Brown DR,
* Barr E,
* Alvarez FB,
* Chiacchierini LM,
* Jansen KU;
* Proof of Principle Study Investigators.

Department of Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. kouts at u.washington.edu

BACKGROUND: Approximately 20 percent of adults become infected with human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16). Although most infections are benign, some progress to anogenital cancer. A vaccine that reduces the incidence of HPV-16 infection may provide important public health benefits. METHODS: In this double-blind study, we randomly assigned 2392 young women (defined as females 16 to 23 years of age) to receive three doses of placebo or HPV-16 virus-like-particle vaccine (40 microg per dose), given at day 0, month 2, and month 6. Genital samples to test for HPV-16 DNA were obtained at enrollment, one month after the third vaccination, and every six months thereafter. Women were referred for colposcopy according to a protocol. Biopsy tissue was evaluated for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and analyzed for HPV-16 DNA with use of the polymerase chain reaction. The primary end point was persistent HPV-16 infection, defined as the detection of HPV-16 DNA in samples obtained at two or more visits. The primary analysis was limited to women who were negative for HPV-16 DNA and HPV-16 antibodies at enrollment and HPV-16 DNA at month 7. RESULTS: The women were followed for a median of 17.4 months after completing the vaccination regimen. The incidence of persistent HPV-16 infection was 3.8 per 100 woman-years at risk in the placebo group and 0 per 100 woman-years at risk in the vaccine group (100 percent efficacy; 95 percent confidence interval, 90 to 100; P<0.001). All nine cases of HPV-16-related cervical intraepithelial neoplasia occurred among the placebo recipients. CONCLUSIONS: Administration of this HPV-16 vaccine reduced the incidence of both HPV-16 infection and HPV-16-related cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. Immunizing HPV-16-negative women may eventually reduce the incidence of cervical cancer. Copyright 2002 Massachusetts Medical Society

PMID: 12444178 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]