Friday, January 4, 2008

Gardasil ads don't tell the whole story

Recently there has been alot of controversy surrounding the HPV vaccine,which has been approved by the FDA for women ages 9 to 26 and which the CDC has suggested should be mandatory along with other childhood innoculations.The ads tell you that your daughter could be " one less" victim of cervical cancer if you get her vaccinated and its true that many types of cervical cancer are caused by HPV but they are not giving the whole story...
Human papilloma virus is a sexually transmitted disease,which means like any other STD,you are not at risk if you are abstinent or in a committed monogamous sexual relationship with an uninfected partner-PERIOD.So unless your 9 year old daughter is sexually active,she will not get HPV or the strain of cervical cancer it causes.So then why the big push to make it mandatory?Shouldn't that be the parents decision?And why are they not being more clear and concise about the issue?You would be surprised at the number of people who are oblivious to the fact that HPV is an STD.Telling parents that they can prevent their daughters from getting cervical cancer with this shot and leaving out all the facts about HOW HPV is contracted is misleading to say the least.When my daughter is a teenager and IF she decides to become sexually active despite my feelings about it,I will certainly have her innoculated-but that is my choice as a parent.I will NOT be carting her off to a doctor for a series of painful shots at the age of 9 or 10 for something that is totally unnecessary.It's wonderful that we are making strides to beat any kind of cancer,but I also think the drug companies and medical community have a responsibility to give us the whole story-not just what they think we want to hear to sell their products and/or services!

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