Vaccine for Sexually Transmitted Virus Is Urged for Both Sexes

[Guest guest]

A physician's comment follows the news item.

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Vaccine for Sexually Transmitted Virus Is Urged for Both Sexes

Reuters

Monday, July 31, 2006; A06

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/30/AR2006073000501.\

html

LOS ANGELES -- A new vaccine aimed at halting the spread of a common

sexually transmitted virus that can lead to cervical cancer should

eventually be given to both sexes, doctors said Monday.

The vaccine, Merck & Co.'s Gardasil, was licensed in June by the U.S. Food

and Drug Administration for use in women and girls 9 to 26 years of age.

Gardasil protects against four types of the human papillomavirus, also

known as HPV or human wart virus.

A government advisory committee agreed a month ago to recommend the

vaccine for girls ages 11 and 12, for girls and women ages 13 to 26 who

have not yet received the vaccine, and for women who have had abnormal pap

smears, genital warts or certain other conditions.

Bradley Monk, associate professor in gynecologic oncology at the

University of California at Irvine, said the best use of the vaccine would

include giving it to girls and boys and all women and men, regardless of

individual risk factors.

" We need to move toward a paradigm where this is a universal vaccine, " he

said in a commentary published in the latest issue of the journal

Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Some groups oppose requiring the shots for school attendance, saying that

parents should decide whether to immunize their children against a

sexually transmitted virus.

Men can pass on the virus to their sexual partners, so it makes sense to

vaccinate boys against HPV, and it would also protect them from genital

warts, Monk said.

He dismissed the argument that vaccinating people against a sexually

transmitted disease would encourage promiscuity.

" Just because you wear a seat belt, does that mean you drive recklessly?

Or just because you give your son a tetanus shot, does that mean he is

going to go out and step on a rusty nail? Of course not, " Monk said.

GlaxoKline Plc is developing a vaccine against HPV strains, which

infect about half of sexually active adults sometime during their life.

The virus is usually harmless, but it can lead to abnormal cells in the

cervix lining that can turn cancerous. It can also cause cancer of the

penis.

" To have a vaccine that prevents cancer and not use it would be one of the

greatest tragedies, " Monk said.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

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This is a very important subject. We are catapulting the young women of our

world into a new vaccine for a disease that is 100% diagnosable and

treatable with simple detection methods. At what cost? $360 per person,

not including office visit costs, for 100 million women and girls is $36

billion bucks! And that is only for the initial round and not the booster

doses that are yet unspecified. And the savings? None probably. There

will be no change in the recommendation for Pap smears. How about lives

saved? That is very questionable. Most of the current deaths from cervical

cancer occur in women with HIV or other immune system disorders. I suspect

that most are in women who do not get healthcare in general let alone Pap

smears. Are we going to capture these women with the health care net thrown

out to young women and girls who come in for camp physicals and have HMOs or

other insurance that covers health maintenance and vaccines? This in my

opinion is just another windfall for the big pharma. But that's just my

opinion.

Stuart Freedenfeld, M.D.

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