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Why Are HPV Vaccine Rates So Low?

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Health officials say another issue is that the vaccine protects against a virus associated with sexual activity. That makes it tough for some parents to support early immunization. "This is a country that promotes abstinence-only sex ed," says Yale University gynecologist Dr. Mary Jane Minkin.

Even studies of physicians' attitudes toward the vaccine have found that doctors are more likely to recommend the HPV shots for older teens, not tweens, because they're "worried about parental response," says Dr. Jessica Kahn of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. "[Yet] to try to predict when your child is going to initiate sex and vaccinate right before then is a very risky proposition."

Ironically, one solution might be to make Gardasil available for even younger kids. Doctors say parents would then be less likely to think of it as a sex-related vaccine. That's what happened with the hepatitis B vaccine, which is now given in three doses before babies are 18 months old. Earlier vaccinations also tend to have a higher compliance rate, since babies and young children typically visit their doctors more regularly than tweens and teens. The 2006 National Immunization Survey showed that 81.3 percent of 13-to-17-year-olds had received three doses of hep B.

For now, health officials are trying to target tweens with the concept of an "adolescent platform" of vaccinations that includes Gardasil. Ideally, preteens would get immunizations like the meningococcal conjugate vaccine (or MCV4), the tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis vaccine (or Tdap) and the HPV vaccine. The federal government's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices actually recommends that girls be immunized with all three at 11 or 12, and those aged 13 to 26 be given a "catch-up" vaccine.

Young women and girls may not be the only ones to get the vaccine in the future. Merck is also studying the vaccine in men, who in rare cases can get penile cancers, anal cancers and cancers of the head and neck from HPV. The drug company expects to submit data to the FDA on men later this year. And last month it submitted data to the FDA on trials conducted in women up to the age of 45.

Still, the most pressing goal is to increase the vaccination rates among tweens, so they're immunized before they may be exposed to the virus. As awareness of the vaccine and its benefits spreads, there are encouraging signs that a growing number of parents are on board. "Cancer has touched my family," says Diane Simpson-Bundy, a suburban Chicago mom who plans to vaccinate her eight-year-old daughter in a couple of years. "If there's an opportunity to prevent a particular kind of [cancer], I'm all for that."

That's precisely the message health officials hope more parents will hear.

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Posted By: kahaack @ 06/02/2009 4:35:21 PM

my daughter has the same symptons are you any better.
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Posted By: kahaack @ 06/02/2009 4:33:47 PM

Maybe people are getting smart and researching the gardahell side effects. They want their daughters to be one less injured by an unnecessary vaccine that is killing and maiming our girls. My daughter is one less healthy thanks to the Merck Gardasil madness. One less healthy teen. Here are the non-serious side effects she has had or is having. Peripheral Neuropathy in both feet. Burning and loss of feeling in her feet. This is usually diagnosed in people who have had excessively high blood sugar levels in their 60's and 70's. Usually insulin dependant diabletes. I did my research. Fainting all the time with loss of use of legs. Does this sound non-serious? It is according to the CDC. Gastritis, Unrelenting Migraine headaches for weeks at a time. No period for a year and a half. Brain fog she went from a 3.8 GPA to under a 1 in one year. Who could study or think with unrelenting migraines. She has had tremors, sinus infections, bloody stools, She has lost some peripheral vision in one of her eyes. The fainting is the worse.. When she faints she loses the ability to walk. This has happened more then 20 times.. Think about this and do your research before allowing anyone to poison your child with this crap. WMD Gardasil a Weapon of Mass destruction. Look it up. I think Gardasil qualifies. Merck needs to be held accountable for every death and sick kid from this mass innoculation and poisoning of our youth.
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Posted By: teacher3rs @ 03/09/2009 11:24:55 AM

The seizures, auto immune disease, paralysis, clots, etc happening to our girls is an outrage. To some of our girls this drug is sinister.

My daughter has had a laundry list of symptoms following Gardasil that have persisted for over a year.

Have we forgotten the vaccine for Lyme disease? It didn???t stay on the market long. You see, genetically we are each a bit individual. With the Lyme???s disease vaccine, it seems the people with the genetic marker HLA-DR4 and certain alleles, had auto immune reactions, some severe and crippling. In my recall, the manufacturer knew this information and didn???t pass it on to the public.

Dr Diane Harper, Dartmouth Medical School worked on the vaccine and has suggested that families with a history of auto immune disease, motor neuron and clotting disorders may want to wait or avoid having this vaccine. Merck did not pass this suggestion on to the public on the package insert sheet.

Gardasil, Cervarix, and Silgard seem to be drugs directed against HPV in different countries around the world. I???ve read articles by mothers in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and more complaining of debilitating side effects.

I think this issue is like the Bernie Madoff case, the seals on the NASA Challenger, the Ford Pinto fiasco???Someone knows something. They know why this is happening. Someone needs to do the ???right??? thing ??? speak out - and stop this disaster from happening to more of our young ladies.