HPV – Human Papillomavirus is a viral infection, which spreads through skin-to-skin sexual contact and can be cause of cervical cancer.
It’s an infection, which cannot be cure, and it can only be treated.
Vaccine for HPV could save thousands of lives
You can save yourself from HIV/ AIDS with the help of condoms but HPV infection is worse but you cannot save yourself in anyway except not indulging in sex.
The people with HPV or the one who are physically involve with may be unaware of it themselves and may not show the signs of infection for a long time.
Sometimes the signs are not visible at all. Of course like aids you don’t die of it but the life turns bad.
This HPV virus is known to cause;
- Cervical cancer
- Vaginal cancer
- Vulvar cancer
- and genital warts in women
With the help of HPV test at the same time as pap test, it can be diagnose and confirm whether a woman has cervical or any other cancer.
Unlike AIDS that can be prevent by mere use of condoms, to avoid HPV virus infection is not so simple.
Its ideal to stay away from multiple sexual relations altogether because the person you are physically involve with may not be aware of the infection as the signs may not be visible.
And may not be visible for a long time.
Using condom works towards limited protection for HPV
Therefore you cannot assume use of condoms makes sex safe.
It may certainly keep you off AIDS but not HPV infection.
As a result of HPV infections, warts start to grow in the genitals or inside the vagina.
They can never be cured fully and the treatment depends on many other aspects.
Sometimes as a result of treatments these warts become dormant and never return and sometimes they do resurface.
Hpv Is the Most Common Sexually Transmitted Disease
Around ten thousands case of cervical cancer will be diagnose every year, and thirty-seven hundred women will die as a result of cervical cancer each year.
There is no cure for cervical cancer and the treatments available are limited.
In the middle of 2006 the food and drug administration approved the use of Gardisil, a new vaccine that prevents four types of HPV.
Two of the types of HPV are responsible for approximately seventy percent of the cases of cervical cancer worldwide.
The other two are responsible for an estimate amount of ninety percent of cases of genital warts.
Research has shown that the vaccine is effective in its cause to stop the most dangerous forms of HPV.
However, what isn’t sure yet is exactly how long the vaccine will continue to protect, best estimates put the protection at around five years.
This would make girls in their early to late teens, just prior to engaging in sexual activity, to be the most likely candidates to receive the vaccine.
Benefits of HPV Vaccine
Whether or not you should get HPV Vaccine has been a topic of discussion that’s generating mix and extreme responses from people from various walks of life.
Not only general people but also religious bodies and family advocacy groups are also taking it up aggressively.
The HPV vaccination will prevent women, especially young women from getting this infection.
It will act as a shield against the virus infection.
But some groups are against this.
Those parents feel that the vaccine will encourage promiscuity in young generation.
Some guardians or parents feel strongly against immunizing their young pre-teen children against STD.
They feel that by doing this they are indirectly conveying the message to their children that it’s okay by them if they indulge in sexual activities.
Moreover, some people also feel that HPV is not as dangerous as its made out to be.
However, they are wrong. Because it is a potential threat.
Other parents feel that this vaccine may affect their child’s psychology adversely.
The protection may give them a feeling that the parents don’t trust them or are not confident about their social behaviors.
Therefore the controversy has surfaced. People have extreme views.
While some think it’s a great protection there are others who are very upset about being so pro-active.
Vaccine for HPV could save thousands of lives
The food and drug administration has approved a vaccine to prevent the human papilloma virus or HPV, which is the cause in the majority of cases of cervical cancer.
When taken into consideration the statistics are astounding: over thirty million people have HPV and nearly six million new cases are report each year.
Approximately one half of all sexually active people will contract genital HPV at some point in their lives.
Nearly ten million sexually active teens have genital HPV right now.
Not all cases of HPV will cause cervical cancer, in fact around ninety percent of cases will just go away on their own.
Some of which will show no signs or symptoms at all.
Genital warts are the most common symptom and may indicate the presence of HPV, but not necessarily any progression to cervical cancer.
Women can be diagnose with a pap test, but though men can have the virus there is no test to diagnose them at this time.
Problems with HPV Vaccine
There are however two problems:
- The vaccine is not very cheap
- In some peoples’ eyes there is a moral dilemma
Vaccine is very new and it’s currently unknown whether it will be cover, or to what extent it will be cover by most of the insurance companies.
Cost would put it out of reach of most middle class families in the US, among who would be the girls most likely in need of the vaccine.
Also, it goes without saying that impoverished girls from foreign countries in desperate need would go un-vaccinated as well.
The moral dilemma comes to light in the belief that people should wait to be sexually active until they are married.
Which in this day and age is an antiquate notion and more wishful thinking than anything with grounds in reality.
Doctors can only dispense birth control to underage patients without parental consent.
They cannot yet administer a vaccination with consent, and in the minds of several people consenting to the vaccination is also consenting to sexual activity.
Regardless of the few obstacles of cost and worry delaying the progress, this is an incredible advancement in medicine.
With the proper government funding and some real world education on the threats of HPV to concerned parents, this vaccine could begin to save thousands of lives a year starting now.
