CDC Panel Votes to Extend HPV Vaccine to Young Boys

[mzmolly]

All males starting at age 11 should receive the HPV vaccine Gardasil to protect themselves against sexually transmitted forms of human papillomavirus, the cause of most cervical and anal cancers as well as most mouth and throat cancers, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee voted today.

Thirteen members of the committee voted in favor of extending the HPV vaccine recommendation to young boys, and one member abstained. The recommendation now goes to the director of the CDC and the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for final approval.

The CDC already recommends routinely immunizing girls with a three-dose vaccine beginning at age 11 or 12, before they become sexually active, although they can be vaccinated as young as age 9. The agency previously issued a so-called permissive recommendation giving boys and young men from ages 9 through 26 the option of receiving the vaccine.

...

http://www.med.umkc.edu/informatic_medicine/Faculty/harper.shtml">* Dr. Diane Harper, director of the Gynecologic Cancer Prevention Research Group at the University of Missouri-Kansas City called it "misguided to think that all boys will gain any health benefit from HPV vaccination."

She contended that "mass vaccination for the prevention of the other HPV-associated cancers puts large numbers of people at risk for harms from vaccination, compared to both the personal and public health risk of anal, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers."

http://gma.yahoo.com/cdc-panel-votes-extend-hpv-vaccine-young-boys-133827046.html

Of note: * Diane Harper, MD, MPH, MS is an internationally known researcher, clinician and educator in the field of HPV associated diseases, especially focused on the prevention of cervical cancer. She contributed to the sentinel research in designing and implementing the studies of both HPV vaccines, Cervarix and Gardasil, worldwide.

[pnwmom]

1. Interesting. She was one of the researchers who helped develop the vaccines.

Diane Harper, MD, MPH, MS is an internationally known researcher, clinician and educator in the field of HPV associated diseases, especially focused on the prevention of cervical cancer. She contributed to the sentinel research in designing and implementing the studies of both HPV vaccines, Cervarix and Gardasil, worldwide. She completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; her medical degree and residencies in Ob/Gyn and Family Medicine from the University of Kansas; and she attended Stanford University, studying Medical Decision Making/Cost Effectiveness Analysis as part of her Master of Public Health thesis.

[mzmolly]

3. Isn't it odd that her position on the HPV jab is considered

"anti-vaccine" here?

[pnwmom]

2. A writer in Salon makes another point. It's too bad that big money

is so tied into the issue of vaccinations; it's difficult to feel a lot of confidence in particular vaccination recommendations when they seem to be so profit-driven.

http://life.salon.com/2011/10/26/do_boys_really_need_the_hpv_vaccine/

But with the CDC’s new guidelines, parents with sons now join those of us with daughters in navigating the often muddy waters of our children’s current and future health. It’s certainly worth mentioning that the sudden push to give the vaccine to boys will significantly boost the profits of Merck, the drug’s producer. Not bad considering that just a year ago, CNN was dismissing Gardasil as a “marketplace dud.” It’s also notable that the recent University of California, San Francisco, study on Gardasil’s effectiveness on anal cancer was funded with grants from Merck, and that the lab’s professor, Dr. Joel Palefsky, has been an advisor to the company.

I want all of our sons and daughters to go out into the world of sexual maturity without the fear of cancer looming over their heads. I also know that the pharmaceutical industry has a deep financial stake in every needle that is injected into their bodies. We parents make uneasy choices, and sometimes, take the leap of faith that the ones we land on are the best. Because we have to live with the knowledge that every medical breakthrough for our kids is also a golden opportunity for somebody else to make a buck.

[mzmolly]

4. Interesting article.

Thanks for sharing. :hi: