HealthFirst-Learning about the HPV vaccine

UNDATED (WJRT) -- (02/19/08)-- Since the approval of the HPV vaccine two years ago, parents are asking themselves if they should vaccinate their daughters against a sexually transmitted disease.

HealthFirst reporter Leslie LoBue is here to tell us what one McLaren doctor is doing to help parents make a more informed decision.

HPV is now the most common sexually transmitted disease out there, and it is often symptom-less until it is serious.

The vaccine, which protects against the most common strains of the virus that causes cervical cancer, is approved for girls and young women aged 9 to 26.

For Sharon, the decision to have her daughter vaccinated against HPV was an easy one. "I felt the benefits outweigh the risk."

The risk some parents worry about most isn't so much about potential side effects. Rather, it is about the possibility that vaccinating a child against a sexually-transmitted virus may equate with offering a permission slip to go ahead and have sex. But supporters of the vaccine say this reasoning doesn't take into account the true big picture.

"This will protect you from one type of social disease only. It is the most prevalent disease that we deal with and it causes cancer, but it will never protect you from the other issues that you're worried about and I'm worried about," explained Dr. Dale Wilson.

That is just one of the points Gynecologist Dale Wilson hopes to get through to parents at a free discussion on the human pappiloma virus and the vaccine that fights the strains that cause cervical cancer and potentially oral cancers and some cancers in men.

"The only way to stop this epidemic is through extensive vaccination. In the United states we're lagging far behind.  Great Britain just recently made it mandatory for all 11- and 12- year-old girls to have this vaccine," Wilson said.

"I just wanted to make sure that if there was something to protect her into the future in any relationship she might have, that I protected her," Baker said.

The FDA may approve the vaccine for young men this year.  Dr. Wilson's free discussion is tomorrow night at 6:00 at McLaren Ballenger Auditorium. To register, call McLaren Connect at 877-625-2736.

 

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healthfirst, leslie lobue

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