|
|
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
|
Research questions worth of (HPV) vaccine
|
|---|
| Parent(s) |
Candidate
|
| Contributor | kal |
| Last Edited | kal May 10, 2007 06:37pm |
| Logged |
0
|
| Category | Study |
| Media | Newspaper - San Jose Mercury News |
| News Date | Friday, May 11, 2007 12:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | New data on the controversial HPV vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer has raised serious questions about its efficacy, researchers are to report today, undercutting the efforts in many states, including California, to make vaccination mandatory.
Although the Merck vaccine, called Gardasil, blocked nearly 100 percent of infections by the two HPV strains it targets, it reduced the incidence of cancer precursors by only 17 percent overall.
Part of the reason was that many of the teenage girls and young women in the three-year study had already been exposed to the virus, according to the report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
But the data also hinted that blocking the targeted strains may have opened an ecological niche that allows the flourishing of HPV strains previously considered to be minor players, partially offsetting the vaccine's protection.
In an editorial in the same issue of the journal, Dr. George F. Sawaya and Dr. Karen Smith-Carter of the University of California-San Francisco, called the benefits of the vaccine "modest" and said young women and their parents should take "a cautious approach" to vaccination because of the many unanswered questions about its efficacy.
"The effect is fairly small," Sawaya said in a telephone interview. "The recommendation for widespread vaccination of women after they become sexually active may need to be rethought."
|
| Share |
|
|
2¢
|
|
| Article | Read Full Article |
|
| Date |
Category |
Headline |
Article |
Contributor |
|
|
