Bill requires cervical cancer vaccine for sixth-graders

[LyLMyssChaos]

LANSING -- All Michigan girls would be required to get a cervical cancer vaccine before entering the sixth grade under proposed legislation.

Sen. Bev Hammerstrom, R-Temperance, was to announce the legislation today. She wants to make Michigan the first state to require it as a condition of attending public or private school.
*snip*
"I think it would be hard to argue against supporting something that would prevent cervical cancer in young women,'' said Petroff, chief medical officer for the Flint-based McLaren Health Plan.

But Petroff said the available vaccine is expensive -- $360 for a series of three shots -- and he's concerned about working poor families who might have to pay out of pocket.


Get the whole story here (http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1158021606195250.xml?news/statewide?NE&coll=1&thispage=2).

[Sophia]

DD #1 is in 6th grade and I had been planning on getting her this vax. ITA with this quote:

"I think it would be hard to argue against supporting something that would prevent cervical cancer in young women,'' said Petroff, chief medical officer for the Flint-based McLaren Health Plan.

[MLA]

Would families be able to opt-out due to religious beliefs? If that's the case, then I have no problem with it -- it's the same as any other vaccines required for children to enter the school system.

[Sophia]

I would imagine so, MLA. Families are able to opt out of other vaccines due to religious reasons even when they're required for school.

[kedzieb]

I think it's a great idea! It's a life-saving vaccine that lasts for years. I think it makes sense to have girls vaccinated before 99% (hopefully!) of them have had sex yet. Horray for healthy teens!

[Rico'sAlice]

I really hope they will be screening these girls before giving them the vax. Because while the percentage is small, there are some who are sexually active before 6th grade (not always by choice) and according to the FDA, if they already have exposure to HPV, their risk factors for cervical cancer/incidence of precancerous cell transformations are greatly increased by Gardasil. Of course, by age 15 25% are, which I guess is why they want to do the shot so young.

That said, I don't vax at all, and don't want to get into all of that here, but even if I did vax in general this is one I would definitely avoid at this point. Largely because it has been on the market for such a short time. I'm also concerned about the way Merk set up the control in their trials (they had a saline placeo & an aluminum placebo group and then combined them) and I feel like they did that to confuse the rate of adverse reactions. http://www.inciid.org/article.php?cat=cancer&id=433 http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/briefing/2006-4222B3.pdf http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/g/gardasil/gardasil_pi.pdf And since we're only looking at four years of followup at this point, I feel like there is a lot to be seen about how long it is effective for and what are any long term side affect.
Also, I have been aware of HPV being so widespread for a long time (before the "tell someone" campaign came out to increase support for the vax) but it was never something I found terribly worrying. Almost everyone with HPV clears the disease naturally with no symptoms or problems, and with regular pap smears and prompt treatment the success rate for precancerous growths is almost 100% and 92% for cancerous lesions. It is one of the rarest and because it is slow growing, one of the most treatable kinds of cancer. http://www.cancernm.org/bcc/prevent/
And, of course the vax is only for two of the strains of HPV that can lead to cervical cancer (yes, they are respinsible for most, but there is still another 30% from other strains) and then there are cases of cervical cancer unrelated to HPV ~10%. I would just hate for someone to think that since they'd had this vax that they were completely protected and become less vigilant about pap smears. I also worry about what will happen to the indidence levels and effects of the hundreds of strains of HPV that are not included in the vax.
Personally I would focus more on what is different about the women who fail to clear HPV naturally, it isn't just chance- there is smoking, mineral/vitamin deficiencies, BCP, etc. There is so much on the link between nutrition vs. how your body deals with HPV, but that never gets mentioned. It would be good for that sort of information to be given to all the women who already have HPV, but I guess there is no funding for that.

[mimieliza]

I'm all for girls getting this vaccine, but it seems stupid to make it a requirement of school attendance. Other vaccines are required for school because of the possibility that the diseases they protect against can be spread in the school environment. It's not like HPV is spread through school contact.

Plus, I wish they would give these vaccines a little more time to be introduced to the general public before making them required. I'd like to see if there are any side effects that come up once it is administered to large numbers of women/girls.

[Nigellas]

ITA with RicosAlice

[kindermom]

I guess as someone who had a good friend get cervical cancer when she was 20, I think that the vaccine is a great thing. I am not sure if I like it as a requirement only because if I understand correctly most insurance will not cover it.