Texas just recently passed a mandate to vaccinate girls for the human papaloma virus (HPV), which is a sexually transmitted disease. All girls, grade 6 and up, must receive the vaccine to register for school.
HPV is the same virus that is attributed to genetal warts and herpes. Many of the women who get cervical cancer also at one time had HPV, so they're thinking that vaccinating against HPV will prevent cervical cancer. According to the National Institutes of Health National Cancer institute, in more than 90% of the cases, HPV infections are harmless and go away without treatment. The CDC says there are more than 100 strains or types of HPV and over 30 strains are sexually transmitted. Yet the vaccine under consideration for mandate covers only 4 strains. About 30% of cervical cancers can’t be prevented by the vaccine, so women will still need regular cervical cancer screenings. Also, the median age of women diagnosed with cervical cancer is 48. Therefore, there isn't a good claim to proove cervical cancer can be prevented by vaccinating preteen girls.
And there are a bunch of groups in Texas that are all up in arms about it because the subject wasn't really discussed. The governor just used his executive power to issue the mandate. There are groups calling to rescind the mandate until it can be further discussed and debated.
What do you all think about this? Do you think we should vaccinate our 10-year-old girls for a sexually transmitted disease? (And if so, do you think we should also vaccinate boys?)
