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Panel examines mandatory HPV vaccine
By Kyle Cheney May 30, 2007…..Despite the Legislature's rejection of proposed budget funding for human papillomavirus vaccines, legislators today pressed on with a forum to discuss the value of vaccinating young girls for the sexually transmitted disease - the leading cause of cervical cancer in the United States. A panel including Secretary of Health and Human Services JudyAnn Bigby, Senate chair of the Committee on Health Care Financing Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge), and two medical experts all expressed varying degrees of support for widespread access to the vaccine, however, they disagreed on whether it should be mandatory for 11- to 12-year-old girls, the age range recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. HPV, a sexually transmitted disease, causes 70 percent of cervical cancers in the United States, resulting in about 3,700 deaths, according to the CDC. Gov. Deval Patrick included $24.8 million in his budget proposal to bolster the state's universal immunization program, in part to ensure that girls and women between ages nine and 26 had access to the HPV vaccine. That age range was approved by the FDA for safe use of the vaccine, although the agency recommends a complete vaccination by age 12, before most girls are sexually active. Data on the efficacy of a vaccine for boys is still incomplete and has not been approved by the FDA. The House and Senate did not advance Patrick's initiative. While there was no vocal opposition, lawmakers said 3 percent revenue growth, combined with other spending pressures, made it difficult to fund new initiatives. HPV comes in dozens of strains and the current vaccine guards against four of the deadliest, experts said. Access to the vaccine is further complicated by its high cost -- $120 per shot, with a three-shot series needed to ensure vaccination. Bigby said the notion of a mandatory vaccine "is clearly open for debate," but that it "doesn't fit the rationale" because it's not as easily transmissible among young girls as it is among sexually active adults. Moore said he supports a mandatory requirement because "so many people get missed if they don't have something to require them to consider the action." He dismissed an argument from some conservative circles that vaccinating young people from HPV will lead to increased promiscuity. "I don't see it as something that's going to promote a sexual orgy," he said, noting that there are many other dangers to sex that young people are aware of. Although all four panelists celebrated the promise of the vaccine, one, Dr. Katherine Hsu of Boston University Medical Center, urged caution about the long-term efficacy of the vaccine. "We've been burned before," she said. "This vaccine was just licensed last year." The fourth panelist was Dr. Gregg Sylvester, who helps promote the HPV vaccine around the world for Merck - the only manufacturer of the formula. Bigby raised eyebrows when she suggested that people already infected with human papillomavirus don't need to be vaccinated against the disease. When asked if people with HPV should bother receiving the vaccine, she told an audience of legislators and their aides "we're not recommending that those people get vaccinated." An HHS spokesman said the secretary made the remark inadvertently and did not mean to construe that women with HPV should not be vaccinated. |