HPV Vaccine Decisions Need To Be Based On Common Sense, Public Health Science, Letter To Editor Says

Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Cancer / Oncology;  Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Article Date: 31 Jul 2006 - 9:00 PDT

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"Common ground" on how to administer Merck's human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil and prevent cervical cancer "lies in common sense and sound public health science," James Wagoner, president of the not-for-profit organization Advocates for Youth, writes in a Washington Post letter to the editor in response to a July 15 Post opinion piece by Peter Sprigg, vice president of the Family Research Council. In the letter, Wagoner says he is disappointed by Sprigg's opinion piece, in which Sprigg wrote that FRC and other conservative groups do not support the inclusion of the HPV vaccine in mandatory school-vaccination programs. Advocates for Youth "supports the inclusion of the vaccine in state school programs because it is the most effective way to get the greatest number of young people vaccinated at a time when the vaccine will provide the most protection," Wagoner writes, adding, "Parents who do not wish their children to participate can opt out." In addition, Wagoner says that Sprigg's assertion that abstinence until marriage is the most effective way to prevent HPV is "simply mistaken." Wagoner cites a paper published in the journal of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, written by John Santelli of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and former director of science and reproductive health at CDC that says abstinence-until-marriage programs theoretically are 100% effective but are almost completely ineffective in actuality. "These programs censor health information about the effectiveness of condoms, a proven tool in the battle against HPV and cervical cancer," Wagoner writes (Wagoner, Washington Post, 7/27).

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