Kyle City Limits
by BRENDA STEWART
It’s getting harder and harder to find something nice to say about this gubernatorial race, so I guess I’ll bow to my southern roots and not say anything about it at all. Just for today. I can’t make any promises about tomorrow.
Ironically, the single nice thing I could say about the Perry reign, is that he brought the vaccine Gardasil into the public debate in Texas. Now, I know that it was not an altogether altruistic venture (I’m fishing for words and biting my tongue here to keep the above promise) and surely mandating that the vaccine be given to public school girls was wholly unpopular and a curious blunder for this career politician, but it did open the door for discussion.
Recently, however, I was taken to task for not covering “both sides of the story” in a column in which I chafed at Bill White’s poke at Gardasil in a campaign commercial last month. So, let me begin with some basic information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Gardasil is a vaccine, produced by drug company giant Merck, that has been proven to prevent certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV) associated with about 70 percent of cervical cancer. Both males and females can be infected with HPV and can therefore, pass the virus on to partners throughout their life-span if not vaccinated before infection has occurred.
As of February, 2009, 40 million doses of Gardasil had been distributed throughout the world. In the U.S. alone, approximately 29.5 million doses of the vaccine have been administered as of May 31, 2010. The national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) has received 16,140 reports of adverse events to date with 92 percent considered non-serious (fainting, pain and swelling at the injection site, headaches, nausea and fever).
Eight percent, however, were deemed serious (events that involved hospitalization, permanent disability, life-threatening illness or death). The CDC and FDA assert that each of these reports have been carefully analyzed by medical experts and there appears to be no pattern that would suggest that the event was caused by the administration of the vaccine. There have been 53 VAERS reports of death among females who have received Gardasil. A limitation of these reports, however, is that there is no proven association between the event and the vaccine, only that it occurred sometime after administration.
Past any potential health ramifications, though, the fervor against Gardasil has conjured up some pretty unusual bedfellows. The Moral Majority and like-minded Christian conservatives have consistently proffered that vaccinating against HPV will somehow encourage their children to have sex, while various big drug companies feel scorned that they did not get a cut of this lucrative pie.
The Libertarians and the “anti-any-and-all-vaccines” parent contingent, as well as the conspiracy theorists, all have their separate takes on this vaccine. “Vaccines have raised concerns for similar reasons throughout history,” said Greg Zimet, professor of pediatrics and clinical psychology at Indiana University School of Medicine and a member of the Society of Adolescent Medicine’s HPV Committee, which strongly endorses the vaccine.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Adolescent Medicine, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, among others, wholly support the administration of Gardasil and are confident of its effectiveness and safety.
The vaccine, unfortunately, does not come cheap. It is administered in a series of three shots, each costing $120 a dose, excluding doctor fees. Fortunately for local students, the HCISD WELL Clinic provides an array of quality and comprehensive medical care for all students regardless of socioeconomic status. The HPV inoculation is available to both male and female students for $6.00 per shot and the clinic encourages students and parents to contact them with any questions.
In response to a comment about the controversy surrounding this vaccine, Candy Reeves, a nurse practitioner at the clinic, lamented, “There is a silent killer among us, and it’s not Gardasil. It’s cervical cancer.”
The American Cancer Society estimates that over 11,000 women a year are diagnosed with cervical cancer and, of those, 3,600 will die from this disease. Gardasil is the first and only cancer vaccine available today and experts believe that it will cut cervical cancer deaths by two thirds.
Franklin was right. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
