Features

 

 

 

The HPV Vaccine: Is it a Shot in the Dark?

Josie Padro

 

Cl. is bad; cancer prevention
is good. That seems simple enough, but
the recent controversy over Gardasil, a
vaccine for cervical cancer, doesn’t seem
to be going away.

Gardasil produces immunity to four
strains of the sexually transmitted human
papilloma virus (HPV), which cause
cervical cancer and genital warts. This
year the governments of Ontario and the
Atlantic Provinces intend to use the drug
as part of a program to immunize teen
and pre-teen girls. A similar Gardasil-
based program for girls in BC is being
considered for next year. Meanwhile,
opposition to the immunization programs
is coming from some highly credible
sources.

A Few Facts

According to the Canadian Medical
Association, cervical cancer is the second
most common cancer in women between
the ages of 20 and 44, with HPV causing
the majority of cases. Cervical cancer is
slow-growing, so Canadian women have
been advised that regular Pap tests.are a
good way to detect the cancer in its early
stages. When it’s caught early, treatment
is the relatively simple matter of removing
the cancer cells through a procedure that
is only a little more involved than the Pap
test itself. But there are still 400 women
every year who die from the disease.

Gardasil, manufactured by the drug

company Merck-Frosst, is almost 100
percent effective against the four types
of HPV that cause 70 percent of cervical
cancers and 90 percent of genital warts.
In clinical trials, researchers discovered
that girls in the 9 to 15 year old group,
who had been given the vaccine, showed
a much larger immune response to HPV
than did women in the 16 to 26 year
old age group. For this reason, health
authorities recommend immunizing girls’
in late elementary or early high school:

Confusion still exists

It seems that much of the discussion
in the media hasn’t filtered down to
the people who actually qualify for the
vaccine. On campus, many women know

little or nothing about Gardasil. Those
who have heard about the vaccine aren’t

t rushing out to get it, and of those we
spoke to, most say the cost of the vaccine,
at close to $400, would prevent them
from getting it.

Natalie, a physical education student,
says she has no strong opinion on
the subject, but feels confident that if
public health officials recommend the
vaccine then it must have positive health
benefits. “It would be a good idea for
the government to cover it,” she said.

It shouldn’t be expensive if they want
people to get it.”

“T need to find out more about it,” says
Katrina, a music student. She felt the cost
of the vaccine would definitely prevent
her to getting it.

Shelley, a visiting SFU student, said
she hasn’t :

 

the HPV vaccine because information
about Gardasil was so contradictory.

She made the decision to pay for her
daughter’s immunization after asking
her family doctor whether she had
immunized her own daughters. Her
doctor said yes. Briggs felt that this was
a solid endorsement and felt comfortable
recommending and paying for her
daughter’s vaccine shortly after.

But Susan Briggs is also concerned
about all the girls who can’t pay for the
vaccine. She points out that the Canada
Health Act promises to provide equal
health care for all. As it stands, there is a
big divide between those who can afford
the vaccine and those who can’t.

Opposition from Surprising Corners
While women weigh the pros and
yy cons of getting

thought too immunized
much about it. against HPV,
“Tt’s not worth the debate
the trouble to rages on in
find out,” she the media. In
says. “I just the September
concentrate on issue of
things I have Common
more control Ground, Alan
over, like Cassels comes
exercise and a out swinging
living a healthy against
lifestyle.” Gardasil. He
Desiree, says, ““what’s
who is studying most striking
social work, about this
thinks the issue is the
vaccine is a crass vaccine-
good idea. “My mongering:
mom works in coming from
a hospital and ‘ public health
I heard about it officials who
from her. A lot seem bent on
of my friends ; pushing the
are getting it.” “At the moment, there is no vaccine asif
Desi id ° ‘ ‘ th
Soins epidemic of cervical cancer nn
getimmunized — jn Canada. In fact, there has —
some time in r - assels, a
die meat seen, actually been a decline in the — wet-known
butatthe = number of women diagnosed” ‘min the side
moment, cost is of the medical
a barrier. establishment,
Finally, is no flake.

Sara, a Print Futures graduate has decided
against the shot. About the government’s
plan to immunized teen girls, she says, “I
feel that the money would be better spent
educating children about staying healthy
in ways that we know have positive long-
term effects: eating properly, exercising,
staying positive. If I had a child in school
I wouldn’t trust it to be used. It’s too risky
to be thrown into schools so quickly.”

Access to Health Care for All?

Susan Briggs, instructor in the English
Department at Douglas, says she was
unsure how to counsel her daughter about

He has caused all kinds of discomfort

to mainstream medicine by publishing

Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest

Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning

Us All into Patients, which he co-

authored with Ray Moynihand. Cassels

is also a credible academic affiliated

with the School of Health Information

Sciences at the University of Victoria.
Some in mainstream medicine agree

with Alan Cassels. Also published

this August in the Canadian Medical

Association Journal (CMAJ) was

a commentary by Abby Lippman

of McGill University’s Department

 

of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and
Occupational Health. Ms Lippman has
several concerns she believes need to be
addressed before the vaccine is used in
a “full scale rollout of an HPV vaccine
campaign.”

Lippman points out that, at the
moment, there is no epidemic of cervical
cancer in Canada. In fact, she says, there
has actually been a decline in the number
of women diagnosed and the number of
deaths from the disease. She also believes
that because cervical cancer is slow-
growing, death rates in women who go for
routine Pap tests are extremely low. She
suggests that money would be better spent
trying to recruit women from groups who
routinely forgo Pap tests.

Lippman says the goals of the HPV
vaccination program are unclear. She says
if the goal is to create “herd immunity” —
group resistance to a disease—then the
vaccine should be given to men as well as
to women. If the vaccine is being given
to prevent cervical cancer then it should
offer immunity to all types of cancer-
causing HPV strains.

Doing the right thing
Public health officials remain confident

Continued on Page 14