tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9864334.post113124898540140652..comments2023-10-24T05:49:04.269-04:00Comments on The Chaliceblog: theCSO: More on the HPV vaccine..Chalicechickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07781469958573869914noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9864334.post-1131369493296645222005-11-07T08:18:00.000-05:002005-11-07T08:18:00.000-05:00An excellent Planned Parenthood fact sheet on HPVB...<A HREF="http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/medicalinfo/sti/fact-HPV-virus.xml" REL="nofollow">An excellent Planned Parenthood fact sheet on HPV</A><BR/><BR/>Basically, cancer isn't contagious because the viruses just increase cancer risk, they don't actually *cause* cancer. Some viruses can damage the safeguards cells have against becoming cancerous; the impact is much greater if there are other risk factors as well. For instance, smoking also increases cancer risk, so smoking + HPV-16 is a much higher (but still very low) risk of cervical cancer than HPV-16 alone.<BR/><BR/>HPV has been found to be a factor in most cases of cervical cancer, but most people with HPV, even the high-risk strains, don't get cancer. HPV infections are usually cleared by the body within a year even without any sort of treatment. That does make me wonder about why it's so urgent that this vaccine be administered to kids.. kids and young adults don't get cervical cancer often, while any HPV infection a young or even college-age adult would get will probably clear up on its own long before they're old enough for most cervical cancer to occur.<BR/><BR/>Also, let me address the "100% effective" claim Merck has been making. There's some fine print there that usually gets glossed over by the media. There was a trial where the vaccine was 100% effective at preventing infection by the most common high-risk strains (NOT all HPV, or all high-risk strains) for the period of the trial. That does NOT prove that the vaccine will still provide even that level of protection twenty or thirty years later, when cervical cancer becomes more of an issue.<BR/><BR/>I don't think we know enough yet to make a fully informed decision on this vaccine. And, unfortunately, we may not be able to get that information without a mass vaccination program.TheCSOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13158667972488862686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9864334.post-1131342656739442302005-11-07T00:50:00.000-05:002005-11-07T00:50:00.000-05:00I've been hearing for thirty-five years that cervi...I've been hearing for thirty-five years that cervical cancer was from this virus. <BR/>Two questions: why are they just coming up with a vaccine now and not twenty years ago? <BR/>and Why isn't it contageous if it's a virus? I mean why isn't cancer contageous?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com