Cervical Cancer Vaccine as a social issue
author: Red Tree
Is the hope for this cancer cure going to be swamped?
While looking at washingtonpost.com, I came upon the article, "Cervical Cancer Vaccine Gets Injected With a Social Issue: Some Fear a Shot For Teens Could Encourage Sex" by Rob Stein. Now does this sound crazy to you? I cannot imagine that I would rather my daughter chance contracting cervical cancer than give her protection against the disease. Of course, abstinence is a good thought to discuss with children, and a viable option for them, but let's be real. Other choices are often made. In the meantime, a vaccine against one of the worst cancers women can suffer is going to be available in a year. Conservatives fear that making it available is telling children it is all right for them to explore their sexuality. Does anyone else see anything wrong with that theory?

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cervical cancer vaccine is a windfall for BigPharma 31.Oct.2005 00:50

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Cervical cancer is rare. This might be because of the popularity of pap smear screening, or not. Certainly, the rate of surgical intervention in any degree of possible cervial cell abnormality has skyrocketed, along with the cost of said pap smear. It used to be assumed that the rate of invasive cervial cancer was lower because of the advent of pap smear screening, but like so much else about medicine and every other human endeavor , the data depends on who you read. The various cancer prevention organizations and medical societies are now scrapping over the proper interval between screening pap smears--a lot of this depends on who pays, and how much, to the clinicians, pathologists, laboratories, pharmas, insurance companies, that market and develop and profit from the tests and treatments. Medicine is very much politics. The vaccine would mean huge profits for BigPharma, fewer exams for women, thus less contact with medical clinicians, less counseling about other health-related issues(a good or a not-so-good development, depending on the ben of the clinician).