• 4/27/2006
  • San Mateo, CA
  • staff
  • ProgressiveU (www.progressiveu.org)

The American Cancer Society says that every year in the United States, an estimated 3,700 women die of cervical cancer. Around the world, it is nearer to 270,000.

According to the national Cancer Institute, Human Papillomaviruses (HPV’s) “are the major cause of cervical cancer.” In addition to this, they may cause other cancers.

HPVs are now recognized as the major cause of cervical cancer. Studies also suggest that HPVs may play a role in cancers of the anus, vulva, vagina and some cancers of the oropharynx (the middle part of the throat that includes the soft palate, the base of the tongue and the tonsils).

The National Cancer Institute also says that there is no cure for HPV infection – but that soon will not be true.

You see, they have come out with a vaccine to eliminate HPV. The tests are nearly complete, and we may see the HPV vaccine on the market soon.

From myDNA:
The human papillomavirus (HPV)vaccine, Cervarix, has passed another hurdle. The latest study shows the medication protects women against HPV strains that cause up to 70 percent of all cervical cancers for at least a four-year period. […]

Cervarix protects against four strains of HPV that cause nearly all cervical cancers. It was found to be 100 percent effective against HPV strains 16 and 18, nearly 100 percent effective agianst HPV 45, and 50 percent effective against HPV 31.

This vaccine can cut the number of cervical cancer deaths drastically. It can save thousands of lives in the United States and hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. Not only can it save lives, it can also save millions of dollars nationwide.

From the New Republic:
It’s also true that the annual number of cervical cancer cases is relatively small–10,400; a third of which are fatal. But each year, 4.7 million American women require one or more follow-up appointments for an abnormal pap result, and at least 3 million of these cases result from having HPV. The cost of these appointments to the indiviudual (and to our already overburdened health care system) quickly adds up. A 2003 Stanford study suggested that the cost of inoculating people against the disease would be far smaller than the current cost to the health care system associated with HPV.

It saves lives, it saves money…so what’s the problem?

Well, the Religious Right isn’t happy with the vaccine. The right-wing groups Family Research Council and Focus on the Family say they are happy with the vaccines agains HPV. But then they turn around and say they want people to have a choice to have the shot. They want a choice to take a vaccine that would save thousands of lives. And their position is that they don’t want people to take the shots.

Instead they prefer abstenence instead of an immunization. Would they prefer that people avoid activites that could cause tetanus instead of getting a booster shot? The idea is ludicrous. The expense in both dollars and in precious lives would outweigh everything else; the moral thing to do would be to save lives.

But they aren’t in the business of saving lives, apparently. They use their convoluted logic to say that once people get ther HPV shots, they are going to go out and have wild, promiscous ses, with the knowledge that they are safe from HPV (and so from cervical cancer).

For example:
Bridget Maher of the Family Reserach Council, a leading Christian lobby group based in Washington, D.C. told the British magazine New Scientist in APril 2005 that, “Giving the HPV vaccine to youn women could be potentially harmful, because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex.”

Yeah, in the same way that once people get ther tetanus shots, the immediately see it as a license to step on nails. After all, they are protected.

The Religious Right is clearly out of bounds on this issue; they have no moral standing. To not back widespread use of the HPV vaccine can only harm; the only outcome would be that people who don’t take the vaccine are more susceptible to cancer.