[SaneVax: The spring issue of Life with Teens weighs in on the HPV vaccine debate. Author Vicki Ritterband’s article presents excellent information from medical experts and parents on both sides of the HPV vaccine controversy. This article is a must read for any parent considering HPV vaccination for their child.]
The HPV Vaccine: Physicians Say Benefits Outweigh Risks
By Vicki Ritterbrand
Should you or shouldn’t you vaccinate?
It’s a question that many parents of teenaged girls and boys are asking about two fairly new vaccines – Gardasil and Cervarix – that protect against human papillomavirus, or HPV, the most common sexual transmitted infection.
When it comes to HPV, cancer of the cervis is the biggest concern, as nearly all cervical cancers are caused by the virus. Less commonly, some types of HPV can also lead to cancers of the vulva, vagina, penis, anus, and oropharynx, the middle part of the throat. HPV is a major cause of genital warts in both males and females as well.
Read the entire article here.
This is a good article but it should have been mentioned that there are an enormous number of unanswered questions. Here is a list which the manufacturer Merck and other Gardasil proponents have not answered. The vaccine should not be considered until credible answers are presented for these questions:
Whether it prevents cancer, necessity for boosters, if it increases risk of cancer, if it increases risk of cancer due to aluminium bound recombinant HPV DNA, if Gardasil vaccinated may donate blood without the aluminium bound recombinant HPV DNA causing serious health consequences for the recipient, if there is increased risk of autoimmune disorders due to the recombinant HPV DNA, if HPV is necessarily an infection transmitted by sexual intercourse, whether it causes genotoxicity, targets the relevant virus strains in different demographics,if the strains change in the course of time, adverse events due to concomitant administration with other vaccines, true extent of serious adverse events, long term serious side effects, what the results would be if a true placebo had been used in the clinical trials, what the results of clinical trials would be if Merck had not used their own exclusion criteria, if there is increased risk of blood clots when it is combined with oral contraceptives, if there is an increased risk of brain damage, consequences of “bridging” – extrapolation of study results from one group to another, potentially serious consequences if it is not thoroughly shaken, if it will increase risk of infertility, whether polysorbate is carcinogenic, health consequences due to combination of polysorbate and l-histidine, if aluminium adjuvant is safe, consequences of presence sodium borate, if it will increase risk of miscarriages, stillbirths or babies born with anomalies, if it is excreted in human milk, complete list of ingredients, whether possible benefits outweigh the risks.