Monday, August 06, 2007
HPV, vaccines and women's health
A group of us associated with the Canadian Women's Health Network, with input from others, authored a commentary on "Human papillomavirus, vaccines and women's health: questions and cautions," that was given early release online by the Canadian Medical Association Journal on 1 August 2007: http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/rapidpdf/cmaj.070944v1 This will be part of an issue of the CMAJ that will feature some other articles on HPV, due out August 28 at www.cmaj.ca There is also a larger policy paper available (19 pages) -- casting a critical lens on the HPV vaccine -- now available on the CWHN website: HPV, Vaccines, and Gender: Policy Considerations http://www.cwhn.ca/resources/cwhn/hpv-brief.html This work has (unexpectedly) gotten a fair bit of media attention in Canada, where three provinces will be offering publicly-funded vaccinations to school-aged girls starting in the fall. We hope the issues we raise will stimulate discussions that actually should have occurred prior to the announcement of these vaccination programs. Some of the details may be specific to Canada, but many cross borders.
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Many valid arguments are raised here, and it is clear that mass vaccination at this point is premature, to say the least. I would like to know if there is any solid data on potential risk from the aluminum-based adjuvant in this target population? Given the relatively low incidence of cervical cancer, and that it is easily detected and responds well to intervention, even a small chance of side effect from the adjuvant may outweight the benefits of mass vaccination.
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