FDA grants fast review of Gardasil for adult women

 The next installment of my HPV updates.

Previous installments that include a more detailed background of HPV and its treatments are:
http://joreth.livejournal.com/65765.html - HPV responsible for Oral Cancers
http://joreth.livejournal.com/21110.html - Carrageenan as an HPV preventative
http://joreth.livejournal.com/49944.html - Possible treatments of HPV in testing phases
http://joreth.livejournal.com/20984.html - Central Florida testing options
http://joreth.livejournal.com/63666.html - Better information for Central Florida testing options
http://joreth.livejournal.com/65916.html - A rant about conspiracy theorists that includes actual statistics for the possible health risks of the HPV vaccine

And now, the latest:

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN1932487620080319

FDA grants fast review of Gardasil for adult women

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merck & Co on Wednesday said U.S. regulators have granted a priority review for the company's application to expand marketing of its Gardasil cervical cancer vaccine to women aged 27 through 45.

The designation means that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to make its decision on the marketing application within 6 months, rather than within the agency's typical 10-month review period.

Gardasil, one of Merck's fastest-growing products, is currently approved for girls and women nine through 26 years of age. It works by preventing infection with four sexually transmitted strains of the Human Papillomavirus that cause most cases of cervical cancer.

Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez called the priority review a positive surprise. In a research note, he predicted a "straightforward" regulatory review of the expanded marketing application due to the lack of serious side effects among adult women receiving Gardasil in clinical trials.

Gardasil had fourth-quarter global sales of $339 million, helping to drive Merck's total global revenue from vaccines to $1.1 billion.

Public Health Risk Seen as Parents Reject Vaccines

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/us/21vaccine.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=login 

( Full Article )

---

Jesus fucking christ on a stick. Corrolation of vaccinations to autism has been thoroughly debunked. We're so fucking priviliged to live in the society we live in that we think we have the god-given right to put our heads up our asses. And if that was really all these people were doing, I wouldn't care. But what they're *actually* doing is giving potentially lethal viruses a huge fucking industrial-sized door to be reintroduced into our society to wreak havoc among, not just those innocent children they refused to vaccinate, but the rest of us who *did* vaccinate too!

 As I discussed here, of course there are risks with vaccines. But rather than face the very low risk of their child getting nauseous for a day or two from the shot, they risk their kid having their brain swell to the point of massive brain damage or death! 

One woman was even quoted as saying she refused to sacrifice her child for the "greater good". Because she apparently feels absolutely no responsibility for her choices affecting the rest of society when her "sacrifice" is that the kid might have a sore arm and an upset stomach. 

Yes, I know that there are some real dangers for a very small percentage of people who take vaccines. And we will not know if anyone falls into that small percentage until they get whatever it is the vaccine *might* give you. But not getting the vaccine and getting the actual virus has a much worse future. And yet, some of these parents actually hold MEASELS PARTIES. 

Yes, I said MEASELS PARTIES. This is where the parents think that exposure to a deadly virus is safer than a dead virus or synthetic simulation and take their non-vaccinated children to a house with other non-vaccinated children with the INTENTION of exposing them to this virus by bringing them in contact with someone who is actively contagious. 

While I agree in principle with the idea of being free to make your own choices in medical procedures, this affects the community around you. So I think that anyone who wishes to be exempt from these vaccines must be required to spend 2 weeks in a third world country where that virus is currently rampant. I think that just showing them movies of the devastation is not enough. They should actually sit in the presence of a village that is plagued with that virus, smell the smell of death and human waste and decaying living bodies, look into the eyes of children who are wasting away or dragging themselves across the ground because their legs are atrophied and can't support their weight and they don't have the resources even for leg braces, and know that this could have been prevented with the medical technology that is not just readily availble in their home country, but outright encouraged to the point of public policy and that they are choosing to expose their own children to this horror. Why isn't this a form of child abuse?