Should You Get the HPV Vaccine?

You don’t have to be a virgin to be protected against cancer. By Jake Blumgart|Posted Friday, Jan. 25, 2013, at 1:22 PM ET Source: Slate A doctor gives a 13-year-old girl an HPV vaccination Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images. The human papillomavirus has the dubious distinction of being the sexually transmitted disease you are most likely to get. It’s also the leading cause of cervical cancer. January has, somewhat arbitrarily, been dubbed Cervical Health Awareness Month (also National Hobby Month and Hot Tea Month, the last at least for good reason). While cervical cancer is the disease most commonly associated with HPV, a recent report from the American Cancer Society emphasizes that HPV’s threat is not gender-specific or organ-specific. While cervical cancer cases are in decline (as are general cancer rates), cancers linked to HPV are on the rise. The increasing prevalence of HPV-linked cancers should permanently alter our limited conception of the disease as chiefly a women’s issue. Oropharyngeal (which I’ll be vulgarizing as “oral”) and anal HPV-related cancers (which particularly afflict men who have sex with men) are becoming more common. Oral malignancies account for 37.3 percent of HPV-related cancers, edging out cervical cancer, which makes up 32.7 percent. For men, oral cancers make up 78.2 percent of total HPV-related cancer incidences, and they account for 11.6 percent of cases among women. The death rate for oral cancer is three times higher than that for cervical cancer. (About 40 percent of penile cancer cases are HPV-related, but rates [...]

2013-01-28T14:28:34-07:00January, 2013|OCF In The News, Oral Cancer News|

Merck Responds To Questions About Adverse Events Reported Following Vaccination With GARDASIL®

Source: Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com) Authors: Press Release Merck issued the following statement to address questions about adverse events reported in people who had received GARDASIL [Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent (Types 6, 11, 16, 18) Vaccine, Recombinant]. Merck has analyzed the adverse events reported for GARDASIL relating to the recent reports of death and paralysis, and based on the data available to Merck, believes that no safety issue related to the vaccine has been identified. These types of events are events that could also be seen in the general population, even in the absence of vaccination. An adverse experience report describes an event that occurred after vaccination and does not necessarily mean that the vaccine caused or contributed to the event. The vast majority of adverse events that have been reported to Merck are non-serious and the most common include dizziness and syncope (fainting). "Merck is proud of the public health benefit that GARDASIL can provide in helping to prevent cervical cancer and other HPV diseases caused by HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 throughout the world and we remain confident in the safety profile of GARDASIL," said Richard M. Haupt, executive director, Clinical Research, Merck Research Laboratories. "Merck encourages health care providers and consumers to report any adverse experience associated with GARDASIL to the Company and to the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System so that the Company can continue to thoroughly monitor the safety of this important vaccine." Merck continues to evaluate all safety data in the context [...]

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