joreth | Great News On The HPV Front! (Reply)

I haven't been making posts for a couple of days, or responding to them, and it will be several more days before I have the time to really come back to LJ. But I've been keeping an eye on the progress of the Merk vaccine, Gardasil, and the latest news is great news, so I had to share it as soon as possible!

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/heart-to-heart/2008/11/14/hpv-vaccine-for-men-its-about-time.html

"Finally, two years after it was approved for use in young women, a vaccine against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) has now been shown to be safe and effective in protecting young men as well. Merck's vaccine Gardasil cut infections caused by the four most dangerous strains of this virus by 45 percent and reduced the occurrence of HPV-induced warts by 90 percent, according to a new study involving more than 4,000 male volunteers age 16 to 26. The next step is for the Food and Drug Administration to give its blessing."

The FDA also approves the claim that Gardasil can prevent cancer of the vulva and vagina, in addition to its claim of preventing cervical cancer: http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/fda-grants-gardasil-two-new-indications/2008-09-15

Unfortuantely, Merk lost the bid to market the vaccine to older women, although "off-label" is still an option (which means that you can talk a doctor into giving you something that isn't FDA approved for the category you fit into, but isn't banned either, though it will probably not be covered by insurance since it's not FDA approved to make the claim that it's good for you).

Some more articles about this are here:

http://www.fiercebiotech.com/story/phase-iii-gardasil-prevents-hpv-men/2008-11-13
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/11/13/hpv-vaccine-men.html
http://www.fiercevaccines.com/comment/reply/8021 (ignore the idiot in the comments who claims that vaccines cause cancer and girls are dropping dead all over the place)
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/nov/15/4u-doctors-warn-of-hpv-link-to-developing-oral-can/ - yet another article indicating that HPV is linked to oral cancers

And for the conspiracy theorists and people who fear the over-hyped claims of danger related to side effects from the vaccine: http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/gardasil-remarkably-safe-despite-anaphylaxis/2008-09-03?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss&cmp-id=OTC-RSS-FP0 claims that Gardasil is "remarkably safe despite anaphylactic reactions". (The report that this article references is here: http://www.slate.com/id/2198325 and goes over the pros and cons of giving the vaccine)

Dear Family and Friends:

Many of you may not know this, but I follow the science news and medical technology development of a couple of different issues, one of which is HPV. For decades, HPV has been thought to be a "woman's disease". This is why we get pap smears, although I'm betting a lot of people didn't know that. We all know (or should know) that the pap smears are an annual check for cervical cancer, but very few people knew that this cancer was caused by a virus. This virus is simply so prevalent that, until Merk (a pharmaceutical company) announced the link to the general public, the official medical community position was "we just assume that, if you don't have it by now, you will get it in the future, so rather than cause a panic or label our patients with "STD", we'll just automatically check for the cancer symptoms and not bother to tell you how the cancer got there". Yes, I was specifically told this by several doctors in several states.

Thanks to the vaccine, Gardasil (put out by Merk 2 years ago) we are now aware of this fact. But it is still considered a "woman's disease" because it was linked specifically with cervical cancer. There is now a DNA test to check for the virus in women, which is usually only offered to women over 30 unless you are considered "high risk" and have insurance to cover it. But there has been no test whatsoever for men. Even though it was known that some strains of HPV also cause genital warts in both men and women, the lack of testing for men and the cervical cancer risk for women continued to contribute to the illusion that only women should worry about this, even though men were considered "carriers".

Then Merk came on the scene with their vaccine. Merk limited their research to a very specific group of people (young women, age 9 to 26) for a variety of reasons, one of which was in order to get the approval as fast as possible to get this out on the market to the most at-risk category and the group who would benefit the most from it. But they continued to do research, both on this group, and on all the other groups that were not targeted, such as older women and men.

The success of the Gardasil vaccine has spurred a bunch of research into this previously little-known virus. And we now know that HPV is not just a woman's disease, and it doesn't just cause cervical cancer. HPV is also now considered one of the leading causes of vulva and vaginal cancers, penile and anal cancer, and MOUTH AND THROAT cancers in both MEN AND WOMEN. In fact, with the smoking rate dropping, HPV is taking over the lead position as primary cause of oral cancer.

It was decided that the vaccine was most effective in women who had not yet had the opportunity to be exposed to the virus, hence the young ages.

But getting our kids vaccinated for a sexually transmitted disease at age 9 (or 10, or 14...) makes a lot of parents uncomfortable because they believe it implies a degree of sexuality of their young children. They think "I don't like the idea of my 9 year old having sex yet, so I'll wait until she's older and more likely to be having sex".

The problem is that these parents are waiting until their kids are "older" before vaccinating them against a sexually transmitted disease when the entire point of the vaccination is to catch them BEFORE they become sexually active, not after. And not many parents get the notice ahead of time that their children have decided to start exploring their sexuality.

And now, hopefully those of you with sons haven't stopped reading yet, Gardasil has proven effective at preventing HPV infection in men too. The results of this latest research is expected to earn Merk the right to market Gardasil towards young men as well as women (http://www.usnews.com/blogs/heart-to-heart/2008/11/14/hpv-vaccine-for-men-its-about-time.html). So start checking in with your pediatrician regularly to find out when it will begin to be offered to boys (probably in the next year or two).

It's still expensive, and some insurance companies still don't cover it. But parents, if you can at all afford it, please consider vaccinating your kids while they're still young enough to make the expense worth it. And for older kids and even you adults over 26, although the effectiveness is lower, it is not zero, so please consider vaccinating even if you or your kids are outside of the acceptable age range (boys or adult women and men, this is not for children younger than 9). It is legal and considered safe to administer the vaccine to people outside of the target group, but it is considered "off-label", which means that Merk cannot legally claim that it WILL prevent HPV since evidence for those groups have not been proven yet. "Off-label" usually means that you may have to look for a doctor who will administer it and it will almost certainly not be covered by insurance. But again, if you can at all afford it, I urge you to consider it.

Now, many of the people I am sending this to are in long-term, monogamous relationships and/or don't have kids. THIS APPLIES TO YOU TOO. HPV is so easily transmitted, that some people do not even like to call it a sexually transmitted disease or infection. It is transmitted through skin contact, like herpes, which, we all should know by now, can even be passed from parent to child with a goodnight kiss under certain circumstances. This means that it can be passed through contact that is not sexual intercourse, so even if your kids aren't having "sex" yet, they can still be exposed to the virus. HPV is a *little* more difficult to transmit than herpes, but not by much.

HPV can also lie dormant for YEARS before developing into cancer, or it can be passed through the body and disappear in a few months with no symptoms. Although long-term, monogamous individuals, particularly those who have had only one or two partners their entire life and whose partners have likewise had only one or two partners ever, although these people are at a much lower risk and might reasonably choose not to bother with the vaccine, it is still important to consider all the facts and discuss with your partner(s) what to do.

And please, please, consider vaccinating your children while they are still children. This vaccine is not permission, even implied, to have sex, nor is it a defeat or retreat in the effort to guide children into making more responsible decisions about their future sexual choices. In fact, it can provide a starting point to begin discussing sexual responsibility with your children. This vaccine is prevention of a very real and dangerous virus that is incredibly easy to transmit even when individuals make conservative choices in sexual activity and it is an investment in your children's futures.

You can follow the updates I make on this particular issue in my LiveJournal at http://joreth.livejournal.com/tag/sti and I also urge you to forward this to others, whether they have children or not (since it can apply to adults too), and whether they already know about this or not. Even if you or your friends/family already know all this information, you can ask them to help you spread this information to people *they* know who are not as well-informed. Just remember to remove all headers and visible email addresses if you send this by email (you can leave the link to my journal - it's public and informative). Remember, forwardedemails@yahoo.com was set up specifically as a catchall for email forwards when your email client requires you to have *something* in the To field and you do not have a safe email to list publicly for these purposes, so feel free to use it.

I may be updating this post when I have more time, rather than making a whole new post about the same stuff, just so ya know.