Vaccine For Cervical Cancer

Vaccine For Cervical Cancer
By Ethan Miller

A women's medical group is fighting cervical by issuing
guidelines that call for inoculating all girls ages 11 and 12. 
More than 10,000 new cases of cervical will be diagnosed
in the United States this year.  At least 3,500 women will die.

However, a controversy has started a year, or more, before the
vaccine will be ready for the public. In the hopes of heading
off a confrontation, officials from the developing companies --
Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline -- are meeting with advocacy
groups to try to relieve their concerns. Merck is creating the
drug to be used on 11 – 26 year old women.

"The guidelines state that routine vaccination with Gardasil is
recommended for 11- and 12-year-old females and for females ages
13 to 26 who have not previously been vaccinated or who have not
completed the full series, and that vaccination with Gardasil
can be started at nine years of age," Merck said in a news
release.

The American Medical Women's Association recommends that
doctors check all women 30 years and older for the human
papillomavirus, or HPV, that may cause the cancer.  The
14,000-member group is also lobbying insurance companies to pay
for the vaccine. 

The group is planning on re-directing attention to the benefits
of new tools to fight cervical cancer, which has a kill rate of
230,000 women annually. The association is taking a stand in
favor of the vaccine.  A politically volatile topic -- HPV can
be transmitted through sexual contact.

"We wanted to reaffirm that girls really do need access to this
vaccine," said Dr. Susan Ivey,the association's president and an
adjunct associate professor at UC Berkeley's School of Public
Health. "We wanted to frame the discussion in a public-health
context, where what you really want is to make your population
resistant to diseases and one way to do that is through
vaccination."

The American Medical Women's Association is the first
non-government body to recommend routine vaccination for young
girls. Doctors say the vaccine is most effective when given
before sexual activity starts. 

The vaccine targets four strains of human papillomavirus. Many
women carry HPV through their entire lifetimes, but most women
are able to fight off an infections before

they ever realize
they have the virus.

Beyond the vaccine, the American Women's Medical Association is
advocating wider use of a relatively new test that goes beyond
the standard Pap smear that typically is used to check women for
cervical cancer.

Christine Baze 38, underwent surgery and radiation and
chemotherapy to treat an advanced case of cervical cancer. She
hope the vaccine and HPV test will help a hundreds of women
avoid her suffering.

"It's incredible the tools that are available to prevent cancer
now," she said. "I just don't want anybody to have to go through
what I went through ... and the good news is, they don't have
to. We have an amazing opportunity to eliminate this cancer."

While the idea of a mandatory vaccine for a sexually
transmitted disease has ignited a worldwide moral debate, the
release of the drug was approved in the USA in June 2006.  
At the moment, Canada is the only country actively proposing
the vaccine for both boys and girls as it causes a cosmetic
blemish when given to boys.

About the Author: Ethan Miller advises on improving your heath
and reducing pain from his web site at
http://www.acnescarsmagic.com  He invites you to get his FREE
health guide http://www.acnerescue.com

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