public health

NCI-designated Cancer Centers Urge HPV Vaccination for the Prevention of Cancer

Source: www.medicine.wustl.eduAuthor: Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis Staff Approximately 79 million people in the United States are currently infected with a human papillomavirus (HPV) according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and 14 million new infections occur each year. Several types of high-risk HPV are responsible for the vast majority of cervical, anal, oropharyngeal (middle throat) and other genital cancers. The CDC also reports that each year in the U.S., 27,000 men and women are diagnosed with an HPV-related cancer, which amounts to a new case every 20 minutes. Even though many of these HPV-related cancers are preventable with a safe and effective vaccine, HPV vaccination rates across the U.S. remain low. Together we, a group of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)- designated Cancer Centers, recognize these low rates of HPV vaccination as a serious public health threat. HPV vaccination represents a rare opportunity to prevent many cases of cancer that is tragically underused. As national leaders in cancer research and clinical care, we are compelled to jointly issue this call to action. According to a 2015 CDC report, only 40 percent of girls and 21 percent of boys in the U.S. are receiving the recommended three doses of the HPV vaccine. This falls far short of the goal of 80 percent by the end of this decade, set forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Healthy People 2020 mission. Furthermore, U.S. rates are significantly lower than those of countries such as [...]

Charlotte Parker2016-02-04T12:35:06-07:00February, 2016|Oral Cancer News|

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Works Globally to Fight Antismoking Measures

Source: www.nytimes.comAuthor: Danny Hakim A demonstration against World No Tobacco Day in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2013. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its foreign affiliates have joined efforts to fight antismoking laws around the world. Credit Romeo Gacad/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images KIEV, Ukraine — A parliamentary hearing was convened here in March to consider an odd remnant of Ukraine’s corrupt, pre-revolutionary government. Three years ago, Ukraine filed an international legal challenge against Australia, over Australia’s right to enact antismoking laws on its own soil. To a number of lawmakers, the case seemed absurd, and they wanted to investigate why it was even being pursued. When it came time to defend the tobacco industry, a man named Taras Kachka spoke up. He argued that several “fantastic tobacco companies” had bought up Soviet-era factories and modernized them, and now they were exporting tobacco to many other countries. It was in Ukraine’s national interest, he said, to support investors in the country, even though they do not sell tobacco to Australia. Mr. Kachka was not a tobacco lobbyist or farmer or factory owner. He was the head of a Ukrainian affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, America’s largest trade group. From Ukraine to Uruguay, Moldova to the Philippines, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its foreign affiliates have become the hammer for the tobacco industry, engaging in a worldwide effort to fight antismoking laws of all kinds, according to interviews with government ministers, lobbyists, lawmakers and public health groups in Asia, [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2015-06-30T09:53:56-07:00June, 2015|Oral Cancer News|

Why parents fear the needle

Source: nytimes.com Author: Michael Willrich Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, roughly one in five Americans believes that vaccines cause autism — a disturbing fact that will probably hold true even after the publication this month, in a British medical journal, of a report thoroughly debunking the 1998 paper that began the vaccine-autism scare. That’s because the public’s underlying fear of vaccines goes much deeper than a single paper. Until officials realize that, and learn how to counter such deep-seated concerns, the paranoia — and the public-health risk it poses — will remain. The evidence against the original article and its author, a British medical researcher named Andrew Wakefield, is damning. Among other things, he is said to have received payment for his research from a lawyer involved in a suit against a vaccine manufacturer; in response, Britain’s General Medical Council struck him from the medical register last May. As the journal’s editor put it, the assertion that the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine caused autism “was based not on bad science but on a deliberate fraud.” But public fear of vaccines did not originate with Dr. Wakefield’s paper. Rather, his claims tapped into a reservoir of doubt and resentment toward this life-saving, but never risk-free, technology. Vaccines have had to fight against public skepticism from the beginning. In 1802, after Edward Jenner published his first results claiming that scratching cowpox pus into the arms of healthy children could protect them against smallpox, a political cartoon appeared showing newly vaccinated people with hooves [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2011-01-22T19:10:20-07:00January, 2011|Oral Cancer News|

A dying smoker, with a British accent

Source: nytimes.com Author: Jennifer B. Lee The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene — never an agency to shy away from using vivid, even grisly, images to combat what it sees as public health scourges, namely soda and cigarettes — is unveiling a new television advertisement to discourage New Yorkers from smoking. This one focuses on the emotional toll of tobacco. It features a British man, Anthony, who is dying of lung and throat cancer, but wheezes out that he is looking forward to seeing his daughter during the holidays. The next frame reveals that Anthony died 10 days later, without having seen his daughter again. City Room wondered how New York City viewers could end up watching a British man in an antismoking ad. After all, the other antismoking stars of late have had New York ties: Ronaldo Martinez, a one-time Bronx resident who uses a device to speak from his throat, and Marie, also of the Bronx, a woman with numerous amputations. It turns out there are a number of central online clearinghouses for antitobacco advertising where health departments and nonprofit organizations can essentially share their outreach efforts. The two most prominent exchanges are run by the Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention and World Lung Foundation. For example, the ad featuring Mr. Martinez, which was originally developed for Massachusetts, is also being used in Australia. “There is so much effective media being produced throughout the world,” said Elizabeth Kilgore, acting assistant commissioner of tobacco control at [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-10T07:25:37-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Fury as doctors call for ban on booze ads and sponsors

Source: news.scotsman.com Author: Lyndsay Moss Doctors have called for a total ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorship of sport and music events to tackle the UK's serious drink problems. The British Medical Association (BMA) yesterday outlined a measures to "tackle the soaring cost of alcohol-related harm". Doctors said sponsorship of sporting and music events such as T in the Park must end because of the influence such marketing has on young people, in particular. They also called for an end to promotions such as two-for-one deals and ladies' free entry nights at clubs. The calls sparked anger from alcohol industry chiefs, who said controls were already in place and further restrictions would have a negative impact on jobs and might even lead to increased consumption. But health campaigners backed the recommendations in a report compiled by Stirling University. The BMA also renewed its calls for a minimum price to be set per unit of alcohol – a move being pursued in Scotland – and for alcohol to be taxed at a higher rate than inflation. Drink firms' sponsorship of sport and music events has become widespread in recent years. The BMA highlighted deals such as Carling, which sponsors both the Celtic and Rangers football clubs, and Johnnie Walker whisky, which is a sponsor of the Formula One McLaren Team. The Scottish music festival T in the Park is sponsored by Tennent's lager. The BMA study, Under The Influence, said alcohol consumption in the UK had increased rapidly in recent years. [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-09-09T14:06:23-07:00September, 2009|Oral Cancer News|

Cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil still faces questions

Source: www.philly.com Author: Marie McCullough Three years after the world's first cervical-cancer vaccine was hailed as a public-health breakthrough, Gardasil is facing renewed questions about its safety and value. In today's Journal of the American Medical Association, federal researchers analyze 12,424 voluntary reports of post-vaccination "adverse events" ranging from headaches to deaths. They conclude that only two complaints - fainting and dangerous blood clots -- are more common than expected and may be related to the immunization. But an accompanying editorial points out that many questions about Gardasil remain - key among them, whether it really will reduce the toll of cervical cancer. Another opinion piece in JAMA looks at Merck & Co.'s marketing strategy, contending the company coopted professional medical societies to promote and recommend the vaccine. Merck - already on the defensive over Gardasil's second-quarter sales, which slumped sharply in the United States and worldwide - said in a statement that "we welcome continued study and discussion" of the product's safety. "The bottom line is that Gardasil has a very positive benefit-risk profile," Richard M. Haupt, head of Merck's clinical program for the vaccine, said in an interview. Gardasil, a series of three shots, protects against two strains of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause 70 percent of cervical-cancer cases. Gardasil also wards off two other HPV strains that cause 90 percent of genital warts in men and women. Next month, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration will consider whether to recommend expanding Gardasil's current [...]

Oral Cancer Foundation News Team - A2009-08-19T06:37:56-07:00August, 2009|Oral Cancer News|