HPV Vaccine

Today, Merck announced successful 2 year trials of its HPV vaccine. Yes, I know they call it "cervical cancer vaccine" in the headline but it does correct that and admit to being an HPV vaccine in the text.

I'm going way out on a limb here but I don't understand why anyone, "conservatives or religious groups", would oppose the FDA approval on ideological grounds. Cervical cancer is a disease once almost wiped out but now the precancerous lesions are reappearing with a vengence among sexually active young women. Only regular PAP tests are saving more from the cancer itself. So if medicine can save people from this scourge, let it be.

However, this is a vaccine that school age children receive, not babies. So like the Hepatitis B vaccine, they will know they endure these shots just in case they become sexually active before marriage. I can see why it could be construed that kids would assume this means they are expected to have sex. I wonder how many kids will say to their Moms and Dads "Don't you trust me" on this issue.

The shots only protect against two strains of cancer-causing HPV, 16 and 18. Those are the two most prevalent strains NOW. But there is little reason to expect that any of the other 16 oncogenic types might not become dominant. Can we imagine giving kids maybe 8-10 different series of shots to wipe out all HPV?

Also is a 2 year trial good enough? The immediate results are great but there are no clues to the effect on the kids bodies or on their potential offspring.

My major concern is that this is another step in the Big Brother will fix it so anybody can do whatever they want and not worry about the consequences parade. HPV is a terrible price to pay for teen and young adult sexual romps. It was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control several years ago that condoms are almost worthless as a prevention. After the initial AIDS panic and the development of the HIV "cocktails", caution was thrown to the wind and the risky behavior resumed. This could be the real result of these vaccines. But there always seems to be another disease waiting in the wings.

We need to teach kids that these terrible consequences wreak lives and this country needs them to concentrate on becoming great, responsible adults while young. Sex can wait. It will be better later and so will the kids because of the self-control they showed.