HPV vaccines
The CDC: A new HPV vaccine is now available for females, ages 9 to 26 years. It protects against the four HPV types that cause most cervical cancers and genital warts.
The vaccine, Gardasil, acts to prevent cervical cancer by blocking certain strains of the human papilloma virus.
Hundreds of thousands of girls and young women have gotten at least one dose of Gardasil since the FDA approved it last June.
Common questions
- How common is HPV in the US?
According to the CDC, about 6.2 million people are affected each year. For woman, about 11,000 will get cervical cancer each year. Yet, according to the CDC, “HPV usually goes away on its own, without causing health problems.” Also, “Few women who have HPV get cervical cancer—as long as they follow their doctor’s advice for needed testing or treatment.”
- How much does the vaccine cost?
- What are the benefits of getting the HPV vaccine?
Benefits include the small possibility of not getting HPV in the future, and possibly protecting from genital warts or cervical cancer.
- What are the risks/costs of getting the vaccine?
First, the Gardasil vaccine contains just four types of HPV out of the more than 100 strains. If you contract one of the 96+ types that aren’t included, you’re out of luck. And, if you’ve already been exposed to one of the four types of virus in the vaccine, it doesn’t work against those either. So, even if you accept the risks and get vaccinated, your chances of getting some form of HPV are still very high.
Second, there are many possible side effects which include: dizziness, nausea, joint pain, headaches, high temperature, severe allergic reactions, fainting, and diarrhea.
As of last October, 3,461 complaints about Gardasil had been filed with the FDA's Vaccine Adverse Event Report System (VAERS), and 11 girls had died after exposure to the vaccine.
Third, because this is a new vaccine, no one knows just what the long-term consequences will be. Also, not enough is known about the effects of the vaccine on children with pre-existing medical conditions and with weakened immune systems from their existing medication.
And how many people have ever died from genital warts?
According to a New England Journal of Medicine study, the use of condoms reduces the incidence of HPV by 70 percent, offering FAR better protection than Gardasil.
DPT vaccines
Background
Started in 1949
DPT, (sometimes DTP) is a mixture of three vaccines. They are used to immunize against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus.
Severe problems closely following DPT immunization happen very rarely. Problems could include a serious allergic reaction, prolonged seizures, a decrease in consciousness, lasting brain disease, or even death.
The advantage of the acellular vaccine is that it causes substantially fewer side-effects (estimated at 90% fewer), which commonly include local pain and redness, and/or fever. Both DTP and DTaP appear to be equally efficacious in generating immunity, but DTaP is universally accepted as safer. Most of the developed world has switched to DTaP, but developing countries continue to use DTP, which is substantially cheaper.
What are the risks/costs of getting the DPT vaccine?
- Side effects:
In a 2000 study, researchers reviewed data from the National Center for Health Statistics, from 1988 to 1994, and compared vaccinated to unvaccinated children, found that a child who received DPT or tetanus vaccination was 50 percent more likely to experience severe allergic reactions, more than 80 percent more likely to experience sinusitis and twice as likely to experience asthma as those children who were not vaccinated. The authors concluded that "asthma and other allergic hypersensitivity reactions and related symptoms may be caused, in part, by the delayed effects of DPT or tetanus vaccination."
2. From the CDC website: Although diphtheria is rare in the U.S., it appears that the bacteria continue to get passed among people. In 1996, 10 isolates of the bacteria were obtained from persons in an American Indian community in South Dakota, none of whom had classic diphtheria disease. There was one death reported in 2003 from clinical diphtheria in a 63 year old male who had never been vaccinated.
· Also from the CDC: “Possible side-effects for DPT: Seizure (jerking or staring) (about 1 child out of 14,000)”
Compare that number with the rate of getting diphtheria, which is one out of MILLIONS!
. It is widely accepted that pertussis or whooping cough can cause brain inflammation and permanent brain damage, with endotoxin and pertussis toxin in the B. pertussis bacteria responsible for most of it. In 1994, the IOM acknowledged that the whole cell pertussis vaccine in the DPT shot, which contains endotoxin and pertussis toxin, can cause both acute brain inflammation and chronic neurologic dysfunction in previously healthy children within seven days of receipt of DPT vaccine.
Tetanus is a severe, often fatal disease. The bacteria that cause tetanus are widely distributed in soil and street dust, are found in the waste of many animals.
*How common is it in the US? 124 cases were reported to the CDC from 1995-1997. Basically, not very common.
- Most reported cases of tetanus worldwide are the neonatal type.
Pertussis (Whooping Cough)
Background:
. Outbreaks of pertussis were first described in the 16th century, and the organism was first isolated in 1906. Pertussis, or whooping cough, is an acute infectious disease
caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis
This is a disease that highly communicable which lasts for many weeks and is typically manifested in children with paroxysmal spasms of severe coughing, whooping, and posttussive vomiting.
How common is it? The CDC reports that “In the United States, 5000-7000 cases are reported each year. 13 children died in the United States in 2003.”
Side Effects: There are many, but refer to the general DPT section above.
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