I'm sure by now we've all heard of the Gardasil vaccine. It's one administered to young women ages 9-26 to protect them against strains of sexually transmitted human papillomavirus that can lead to cervical cancer. Up until now its been a girls-only vaccination. The company that makes Gardasil has collected data suggesting that this vaccine may protect against other types of cancer-ones that boys are also capable of developing. Is this information enough to get parents of young men onboard? Most of those interviewed didn't think so. It doesn't help that the shots are administered in a set of 3 over the course of 7 months, and are often painful. Similarly, I was surprised to find that "only one in four teenage girls younger than 18 had completed all three shots."
I can't really say just yet what my opinion on this is. Perhaps since I haven't had time to get used to the idea, I'm still stuck in the thought that this is something only for girls. On top of that, studies involving this vaccine and males seem to be fairly new and the data isn't enough to be thoroughly convincing. I have not personally gotten this vaccine, but I would like to hear if anyone who has, has a different opinion on this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/health/19garda.html?ref=health
1 comment:
Having received the vaccine, I agree with the article that it is a hassle to receive the three, rather painful shots, but I think the result is worth the discomfort.
However, I believe that it is more important for women to receive the shots then men, considering, in the article, it says that the number of women that die every year from cervical cancer is almost 5,000, whereas Gardasil will be effective mainly to gay men before they are sexually active, which is a harder-to-reach percentage of the population.
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