Good News: Arkansas rejects mandatory HPV

[Guest guest]

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Posted on Sunday, January 28, 2007

URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/180156/

The state Health Division has decided not to request that the Board of Health

include a new vaccine guarding against human papillomavirus, or HPV, in its list

of required vaccines for children.

Parents currently can request an exemption if they do not want their child

immunized. Dr. Jim , the division’s director of infectious disease, said

officials worry that requiring the HPV vaccine could cause more parents to

refuse to immunize their children.

“As you’re aware, parents taking the exemption from immunizations has been

skyrocketing over the last several years,” he told members of the state Board of

Health, “and with this vaccine, it’s associated with the three-letter word ‘

sex. ’”

The vaccine, Gardasil, protects against the four most common types of HPV, a

sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer, genital warts and

genital lesions. The U. S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine in

June, and an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

quickly followed with a recommendation that it be given to girls and women ages

9 through 26.

Earlier this week, however, the Arkansas Cervical Cancer Task Force

recommended that the HPV vaccination be required for all 9- to 12-year-olds. The

task force was created by Act 1414 of 2005 to coordinate statewide efforts to

prevent and treat cervical cancer.