Texas first state to require HPV vaccine

[Guest LadyC]

by all means the shot should be available to those who want it. but georges, your dismissing a very critical fact here. it's recommended to girls 9 years of age and older, and in texas, now mandatory for girls 11 and 12 years old.

MOST girls (i hope) are not having sex at that age.... and they do not yet know if the shot will even remain affective beyond five years. so essentially the pharmaceutical companies are getting a huge monetary reward by the government for the sexual promiscuity of children that is not discouraged... a reward which is not even likely to be of much benefit to the girl til the effectiveness of the vaccine is halfway or more worn off.

i'm not saying it will encourage promiscuity, but promiscuity is not being DIScouraged at all.

what i AM saying is that this is further desensizing americans to sexual immorality. by referring to a sexually transmitted disease as a "common virus" as if it were no more serious than a cold... by encouraging and requiring it among children who usually are not even sexually active at that age...

and even though that in itself is the biggest thing i have against it, let's not forget that there are not enough studies on the long term affects yet to know if we're not injecting our children with a vaccine that could cause serious medical complications when they are older and of child-bearing years. it's kinda scary that the vaccine is not recommended for people beyond the age of 26.

rape and incest are always going to be risks. but risk of being infected in those ways should never be equated to the risk of getting infected by choosing to be promiscuous.

[forrestkc]

From Wikipedia on HPV:

A separate group of about 30 HPVs are typically transmitted through sexual contact. Genital HPV infection is very common, with estimates suggesting that up to 75% of women will become infected with one or more of the sexually transmitted HPV types at some point during adulthood (Baseman and Koutsky, 2005). Some sexually transmitted HPVs, such as types 6 and 11, can cause genital warts. However, most HPV types that infect the genitals tend not to cause noticeable symptoms. Persistent infection with a subset of about a dozen so-called "high-risk" sexually transmitted HPVs, including types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45 and 51 can lead to the development of cancer of the cervix. HPV infection is a necessary factor in the development of nearly all cases of cervical cancer (Walboomers 1999).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV

There is nothing to be ashamed of in getting a virus that up to 75% of women become infected with.

you see no shame in 75% of women becoming infected with a sexually transmitted disease? now why does this NOT surprise me?

from the CDC website:

Are there other ways to prevent HPV?

The only sure way to prevent HPV is to abstain from all sexual activity. Sexually active adults can reduce their risk by being in a mutually faithful relationship with someone who has had no other or few sex partners, or by limiting their number of sex partners. But even persons with only one lifetime sex partner can get HPV, if their partner has had previous partners.

I am saying that it is so common that it is the norm. Its like not picking up crabs or the clap or something.

[Guest LadyC]

YES IT IS forrest. the "clap" as you call it is just as much a sexually transmitted disease as hpv is. and crabs is not a disease. they are pubic lice, most often acquired through sexual contact with someone else who has the parasite, but can be acquired without direct sexual contact.

at one point, 'the clap' was far more common than it is today... and was treated by most often by pennicillin. nowdays, people take pennicillin for nearly everything. no surprise it's not so common anymore.

but to say it's not the same thing as picking up any other STD is ridiculous. all STD's are transmitted through sexual activity. you get hpv from having sex. you get the clap from having sex. they may be different viruses, but they're "picked up" as you put it in EXACTLY the same manner.

[forrestkc]

YES IT IS forrest. the "clap" as you call it is just as much a sexually transmitted disease as hpv is. and crabs is not a disease. they are pubic lice, most often acquired through sexual contact with someone else who has the parasite, but can be acquired without direct sexual contact.

at one point, 'the clap' was far more common than it is today... and was treated by most often by pennicillin. nowdays, people take pennicillin for nearly everything. no surprise it's not so common anymore.

but to say it's not the same thing as picking up any other STD is ridiculous. all STD's are transmitted through sexual activity. you get hpv from having sex. you get the clap from having sex. they may be different viruses, but they're "picked up" as you put it in EXACTLY the same manner.

My point was that someone who waits for marriage still has a pretty good likelihood of ending up with HPV if their husband was sexually active at all prior to their meeting each other.

A lot of your STD's are different they are not spread as easily and not nearly as widely spread. Most guys I know of that ended up with the Crabs ended up with them after sleeping with a few to many "easy going girls". Same is true with a lot of your STDs. Which is why I say that there is not a lot of shame associated with HPV like with other STDs.

[Guest LadyC]

there is not a lot of shame associated with it for one reason, and one reason only.

because of how information about the disease is being disseminated.

most people, until very recently, did not even know what HPV was. in fact, i'd bet that most people still don't know that it is an STD.

and it's no easier or harder to catch than any other std. the reason some seem more easily caught these days than others is because promiscuity is at a record high, and many of the std's of yesteryear are nearly non-existant now because of the frequency in which antibiotics that cure many of them are given for other ailments.

sure, a woman who has been absitnant til marriage (that's a rare woman these days) can get it from her husband if he's been sexually active in his past. by the same token, a man who saved himself from marriage can get it from his wife if she's had previous sexual partners.

hpv is an equal opportunity disease. it does not discriminate between genders.

but the bottom line is, it is sexually transmitted. it is a result of a sinful lifestyle of SOMEone, even if an unsuspecting victim wasn't doing anything sinful.

but that's a rare exception to the rule. it shouldn't be whitewashed as being something that women are innocent victims are, because the VAST majority are not.

i know two women with HPV. one was an innocent victim. she got it from her live-in boyfriend. she was living in sin, but she was monogamous, he was not.

the other is my daughter. she doesn't know who she got it from, but she was required to submit a list of all sexual partners over the previous three years so each man could be notified that he should be tested.

[Oh Hamburgers!]

The way I see it, is if there is a cure to a common disease, why not use it?

The fact the disease is sexually transmitted doesn't change the fact HPV is a fairly common disease that can be treated through vaccination. Yes, it does seem strange that the age for girls is 9 or 11, but better safe than sorry I suppose. If it lasts for so long (until 26 as someone said), all the better. It will be able to cover the major times in life young women will be sexually active, even if it provides coverage a few years early. And as has been said earlier, getting HPV doesn't mean you are being promiscuous, you could be married with someone who has it, etc.

So I see no problem with it! Of course, it would make sense to me that people should be allowed to refuse the vaccine if they would like. Requirements seem a bit ridiculous.

[Guest LadyC]

you misunderstood. the vaccine does NOT last til the age of 26. unless of course, the person getting the vaccine is 21 at the time.

the vaccine has only been proven affective for a maximum of five years.

the vaccine is NOT RECOMMENDED for a woman over the age of 26.

why not? is that woman less at risk of getting the disease? or is it because the vaccine may be harmful to the woman at that age?

the facts are, it has not been proven SAFE for women over the age of 26, according to the CDC website.

that means it may not be safe for children either in the long run.

[georgesbluegirl]

hpv is an equal opportunity disease. it does not discriminate between genders.

HPV is an equal opportunity VIRUS, but cervical cancer, the DISEASE associated with HPV, is NOT. Men do not get cervical cancer from HPV, as they lack the necessary anatomy.

As for the duration of the vaccination, Gardasil hasn't been around long enough to know its longevity, but signs point to treating it as a once-in-a-lifetime vaccine, like the polio vaccine.

270,000 women died of cervical cancer in 2002. Think twice, then think again.

[georgesbluegirl]

LadyC, check the CDC. Gardasil has in no way been proven to "wear off!" There's just a lack of long term studies since the vaccine was only developed in the last decade. It's also not unsafe.

[Guest LadyC]

hpv is an equal opportunity disease. it does not discriminate between genders.

As for the duration of the vaccination, Gardasil hasn't been around long enough to know its longevity, but signs point to treating it as a once-in-a-lifetime vaccine, like the polio vaccine.

270,000 women died of cervical cancer in 2002. Think twice, then think again.

what are you basing that assumption on? because the CDC certainly doesn't give any indication that your assumption (that it will be a once in a lifetime shot) has any basis in fact.

again, i think it's great that ADULT women can choose to get the vaccine. i do NOT believe children should be encouraged or mandated to get it.

and furthermore, i'll reinterate.... the way in which this vaccine is being promoted, and the way in which information about the disease is being disseminated, is lulling americans into a false sense of security and is desensitizing us to an "anything sexual is acceptable" mentality.