TruthToTell Nov 28: HPV AND VACCINATIONS: Dangerous Liaisons?-AUDIO BELOW

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Should 12-year-old girls (and boys, for that matter) be forced into vaccinations against the now ubiquitous sexually transmitted disease (STD), human papillomavirus – or HPV – in anticipation of their eventual sexual encounters and the likelihood of infection? HPV has been shown as a major cause of cervical cancer in women. Other manifestations include genital warts.

The issue of mandatory HPV vaccinations was brought into sharp relief during one of the half million Republican debates this year when candidate Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann stated – erroneously, it turned out – that a mandatory vaccination for HPV had resulted in “mental retardation” (developmental disability) in one girl. The issue’s been on the front burner ever since, for which anti-vaccination advocates have cheered. Still, other reactions to the drugs have raised concerns, especially in those for whom a regular pap smear has been so effective.

Because adverse reactions to these vaccines can be severe, advocates are raising serious questions about the haste involved in their approval, the quickly passed mandates in some states to vaccinate children, and the adverse effects the vaccines are having on many of  those girls, some of whom have died  in the wake of the series of shots required for the immunity to take, others of whom have been reported as permanently disabled. Far fewer adverse events have been reported for Cervarix, but its use has been very low.

Despite the near-epidemic nature of this genital disease – there are 30-plus HPV types, the FDA-approved vaccines themselves –Merck Pharmaceuticals’ Gardasil (approved 2006) and Glaxo-Smith-Kline’s Cervarix (2009) – treat the four most common types in boys and girls 9-26 years old (10-25 for Cervarix). In most cases, it appears, the reaction has been an allergic one. Glaxo-Smith-Kline, for example warns loudly that anyone with a latex allergy should not be vaccinated with Cervarix.

Over 20,000 adverse events have been reported to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following Gardasil injections, nearly all of them involving females. Officially, VAERS recorded 71 Gardasil deaths as of September, but the CDC takes care to warn about half are medically confirmed. Others, like Vaccine Safety Council of Minnesota, the National Vaccine Information Center, and Citizens for Health see deeper issues – like politicians’ ties to drug companies.

The disputes seem to lie between VAERS and those who believe the adverse reactions are enough to fight the drugs’ use altogether, especially the state mandates that leave little room for parents to refuse the shots, unless medically ordered or religiously violating.

We’ve assembled a cadre of medical and ethical luminaries along with some advocates to try putting the issues in perspective and give guidance to listeners/viewers and families. Join TTT’s ANDY DRISCOLL and MICHELLE ALIMORADI as we query guests about the rights and wrongs and the dilemmas of both the diseases and the vaccines developed to conquer them.