On Healthy Living

I don’t think I could possibly fit more acronyms in that headline! The news has got me so excited I can’t even use real words. As expected, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a vaccine for the Human Papilloma Virus, an incredibly common virus that also happens to be linked to about 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is diagnosed in about 14,000 women in the United States annually and nearly 500,000 worldwide. Almost 4,000 American women die from this cancer each year, compared to 273,500 around the world. In the developing world, cervical cancer is the most deadly cancer.
HPV, or really the HPV family of viruses, is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, with more than five million new cases reported annually. The drug, called Gardasil, has been recommended for women ages 9 to 26. It is important for girls to be vaccinated because the virus is so common, virtually everyone who has had more than one sex partner, or who has had sex with anyone who has had more than one sex partner, is assumed to have the virus.

The main symptom of HPV infection is warts on the hands, feet and genitals. According to the National Cervical Cancer Coalition’s website, most cases have no symptoms and go away on their own. But for many women with a predisposition to cervical cancer, the virus makes it even more likely that they will get that form of cancer.

Now it’s up to the states to decide if they want to add the HPV vaccination to the shots given to children before they go to school. I don’t know how likely that is to happen, since many on the right think giving such a vaccination to children will just make them want to have sex. Instead we should be thinking about how great it is that the vast majority of our daughters won’t have to suffer, or even worry about, getting cervical cancer. (Yes, there are other ways to get it, but this wipes out a huge population of cancer victims.) This shouldn’t be about who is having sex and who isn’t and when they start. It should be about saving lives. End of sermon.

Sources: Discovery Channel

National Cervical Cancer Coalition 

Sarah White wrote this on June 8th, 2006 and filed it under Healthy Living, Women's Health |