A US debate we will soon be having here - http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID
=42093
Should the vaccine against cervical cancer be compulsory for adolescent girls? It's a relative question for our family. One I haven't given much thought to as yet. I would oppose compulsion naturally but that still leaves a decision which is beyond a 11 or 12 year-old to make. This is tricky stuff.
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8 comments:
Don't worry Lindsay her teacher will advise her and the school nurse will arange it. There is no need for you to worry about any such decision.
If you are sure that your daughter is only going to choose to have sex with boys who are never going to have been exposed via the partner chain to HPV OR are going to plan in advance their first sexual experience then by all means don't get them vaccinated as a routine.
Otherwise you are nuts not to have them vaccinated.
Jeez, it aint rocket science and unless you are the lie to the tui billboard "my daughter's not like all the other girls - yeah right" live on in blissful ignorance.
HPV is pretty much ubiquitous in our society.
Greg, I don't disagree. But it still won't be a decision we make lightly. And it may not be free of charge in NZ in which case it won't be a public health decision. Don't quote me on this but I think it's around $400 a course.
People are entitled to weigh any incidence of side effects with the likelihood of contracting the virus. As was the case with the menzB vaccine.
At the current price it's $520 nz.
To vaccinate all 11 and 12 year-olds would cost $31 million and then half that every year.
Of course, the price will come down with competition.
lindasy: fair enough of course that you make a free choice. But it would be a pity if girls contract HPV while parents vacillate, albeit with noble intentions.
But if you are right about the cost, that is an outrage, and yet another example of slavish adherence to the user-pays principle by our political masters. That is unacceptable on such an important public health issue.
Or have they worked out the maths and decided it's cheaper than paying for cervical cancer treatment for the cases they fail to prevent - especially if they can make some of them pay to go to Australia when they can't wait for treatment here!!
That's the price Merck are charging. It's about recouping their investment. They will charge what they can get for it. And those in well-off countries will be more able to afford it (either through public health or privately) than those in poorer countries.
As other companies come up with similar products (or when the patent runs out) the price will come down.
When all is said and done this vaccine only protects against 4 strains of HPV, two of which have been implicated in cervical cancer.
There are other strains of HPV also implicated in cervical cancer which this vaccine does not protect against.
Nor is the vaccine 100% efficacious against the strains of HPV it does protect against.
So all in all I would not be surprised if fifty years down the track that we will find little or no reduction in the rate of cervical cancer due to this vaccine. It just might turn out to be expensive snake oil.
As for myself and our family (ALL of us, including children are in agreement, not just the parents)... and hopefully hundreds of thousands of others who are finally being pushed over the edge by government incursion into our family lives and decisions - we would like to tell anyone in agreement with mandatory HPV vaccine and also all law enforcement and government agencies:
We don't give a damn. In the words of one of this nation's well known founders: "Give me liberty, or give me death".
Our family chooses death, not tyranny. We prefer death than to be told what to do when it comes to our bodies.
Don't send us your vaccines. Don't send us your genetically engineered slop you call "food". Don't send us any more tax requirements. Don't send us any more threats.
Tyranny is expensive to a civilization. Cut the crap and just send the bullets - it's what it will come down to. Bullets are cheaper and you would save yourself a bucket load of tax money so you can turn it over to your corporate friends for "advancement of your tyrannical society".
We choose not to be members in such a society.
Give us liberty or send us death. If you finally manage to kill us however, due to our refusal to comply....
We pray there IS a true and just God and that you will receive your rewards for eternity.
Perhaps you don't believe in a God. But if there IS, and there is a heaven... we don't count on seeing you there.
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