Should Your Daughter Receive the HPV Vaccine?

Should Your Daughter Receive the HPV Vaccine?

If you have a young daughter, you would do anything to ensure her safety. The FDA has already approved one HPV vaccine, Gardasil, believing that the vaccine could potentially save young women’s lives by preventing cervical cancer. However, some parents have hesitated to give their daughters the vaccine, questioning its safety and effectiveness. Can the HPV vaccine really save lives, or does it pose a high dosage risk?

Next question in Health

  • “No”
  • No Objections Yet

Sigrid Fry-Revere

HPV Vaccination Does Little to Promote the Common Good

Sigrid Fry-Revere

Founder, Center for Ethical Solutions

If the HPV vaccine were risk-free and cost nothing, it would make sense to provide women and girls with the extra protection the vaccine provides, but the vaccine is neither risk- nor cost-free.

The Hazards Outweigh the Benefits. There is no evidence at this time that the HPV vaccine causes more dangerous side effects than the average vaccine, but the number of serious adverse events is still high enough to warrant thinking twice before vaccinating oneself or a child. In light of the CDC’s data on serious adverse effects of the vaccine, a 2007 study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that vaccinating every American girl between the ages of 11 and 26 would prevent 217 cervical cancer deaths, but there would also be approximately 77 deaths related to the vaccination itself and 1,698 non-fatal serious side-effects.* Such side-effects include Guillain-Barre Syndrome (in which the immune system attacks the nervous system and can cause weakness or paralysis), Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (a life-threatening allergic reaction), blood clots, seizures, and dizziness resulting in falls with trauma. The risk of one of these 1,775 deaths or serious adverse reactions is roughly eight times greater than that of death from cervical cancer, and parents (or young women old enough to choose for themselves) could reasonably choose to avoid these risks, especially since cervical cancer is “almost entirely preventable” by safer means.


The Costs Outweigh the Benefits. At a cost of $360 per person for the initial set of vaccinations believed to create immunity and an anticipated need for additional boosters, the HPV vaccine is one of the most expensive vaccinations in history. No wonder Merck is eager to sell the vaccine in the U.S. rather than in developing countries where the vaccine would potentially be useful -- 80 percent of all cervical cancer deaths occur in developing countries where testing programs are few and far between. If individuals wish to be vaccinated or have their children vaccinated despite the risks and lack of benefits, that certainly is a choice they should have, but whether the billions being spent on educational campaigns supporting HPV vaccination is a wise expenditure of taxpayers’ dollars is another question. The high risk-benefit ratio of HPV vaccination makes public health policies that encourage such superfluous vaccinations a waste of community resources.

Evidence

IcotextText
Iskander
Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV4), 20-23.
IcotextText
A. Jemal et al.
“Cancer Statistics, 2006,” CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians (American Cancer Society) 56 (2006): 107.
IcotextText
The FUTURE II Study Group
“Quadrivalent Vaccine against Human Papillomavirus to Prevent High-Grade Cervical Lesions,” New England Journal of Medicine 356, no. 19 (May 10, 2007): 1915. The CDC estimates 1.8 serious adverse events per 100,000 doses of Gardasil. Note that this number is low because it is based on 5 million doses distributed (not administered) and on the number of adverse reactions reported (not all are reported). In addition, when 5 million is divided by the 94 serious adverse events the CDC indicates as reported, the result is 1.88 per 100,000 doses—a number more accurately rounded up to 1.9. Presentation by J. Iskander, Immunization Safety Officer, Office of the Chief Science Officer, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus Vaccine (HPV4): United States Post-Licensure Safety Update (Atlanta, GA: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 28, 2007) 26, at http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/recs/acip/downloads/mtg-slides-jun07/35-hpv3-isk ander.pdf. (I used this for all the cited CDC statistics.)
Post a Comment

Next Argument Previous Next