Planned Parenthood | Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

 

by Anna
Web Correspondent
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

The HPV vaccine Gardasil is doing pretty well nowadays. 2007 saw $1.5 billion in sales from worldwide sales of the vaccine and the Centers for Disease Control say it is almost 100 percent effective in stopping the four strains of human papillomavirus it covers, including strains that cause 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts. So far no major side effects have cropped up, a reassuring fact for parents who worried at first that they might expose their kids to dangerous risk factors. Some states are even pushing to include Gardasil in routine school vaccinations.

So now, Gardasil says, it’s time for the next step. Currently the CDC only recommends the vaccine for girls age 9 to 26, although they should get the injections before they are sexually active, preferably when they are 11 or 12 years old. But what about boys? After all, they are half of the equation in getting and transmitting HPV.

In hopes of further damaging the virus’s pathology by extending the vaccine to both sexes, the HPV vaccine could become available to boys in the United States as early as 2009. In Australia, Mexico, and countries in the European Union males can already receive the vaccine, so the concept is nothing new. Still, it has been met with doubt here in the United States.

One question is: Will parents choose to vaccinate their sons with Gardasil when the vaccine’s campaign has used cervical cancer prevention as its primary mode of advertisement? The Gardasil website and television ads are overflowing with attractive young women proudly displaying signs that read “1 Less” (woman who will die of cervical cancer) . Cervical cancer leads to a quarter million deaths worldwide and about 3,700 deaths in the United States each year, and Gardasil makes use of this fact. The emphasis on female as opposed to male reproductive health has been prevalent since Gardasil became available in 2006, and it is possible that parents might not see the point in vaccinating their sons against a virus that they do not perceive as life threatening for boys. Altruism towards female cervical cancer might be enough to convince some, but it’s hard to say how far this dimension would go.

There are health repercussions for men, however, that are worth noting. First of all, while HPV is transmitted through female-male sexual contact in the majority of cases, it is not an exclusively heterosexual infection. HPV can lead to penile and anal cancers, diseases most often seen in men who have sex with men. Also, last year a research team at Johns Hopkins University found that HPV transmission through oral sex is a leading cause of throat cancer, which doctors usually only watch out for in heavy smokers and drinkers.

Furthermore, while genital warts are treatable and non-life threatening, they shouldn’t be overlooked. The New York Times quoted adolescent psychologist Susan Rosenthal explaining that genital warts are particularly worrisome and psychologically disturbing for young men and women who are already struggling to come to terms with their bodies. They may not be fatal, but they are heavily stigmatized.

If Gardasil accrues enough supporting data to win the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a male-oriented vaccine next year, their advertising strategists will certainly have plenty on their hands in terms of overcoming the old cervical cancer campaign. But whether  Gardasil’s message and marketing focuses on  altruism or practical health benefits, the fact is that HPV has health consequences for both men and women. If the vaccine is found to be as effective and safe for boys as for girls, extending protection to the other half of the population can only be a good thing.

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