Gardasil Vaccine Essays

Gardasil Vaccine Essays Gardasil Vaccine Essay Gardasil Vaccine Essay Gardasil is a vaccine developed by the Merck pharmaceutical company that helps protect against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) types 6, 11, 16, and 18. These different strains of the virus can cause any of the following: cervical cancer, abnormal and precancerous lesions of the vagina, vulva, and genital warts. According to the CDC in 2003 the incidence of HPV in women ages 20-24 was at about 45%. cdc. gov/vaccines/recs/acip/downloads/mtg-slides-feb08/15-4-hpv. df Gardasil does not contain any live virus or dead virus, only virus-like particles, which cannot be reproduced in the human body. It is a vaccine indicated in girls and women 9-26 years in age for the prevention of HPV, cervical cancer, and genital warts. The recommended dosage schedule for Gardasil is noramally 3 scheduled, separate doses of 0. 5 ml-intramuscular injections using the following schedule: First dose: at a patient elected date Second dose: 2 months after the first dose Third dose: 6 months after the first dose There are precautions to getting this vaccine. Gardasil can interact with certain medications and should not be used by women who are on blood thinners/ (anticoagulants), or steroid therapy, should not get the injection because of adverse reactions. Another thing to consider is that if you have a compromised immune system, you should not get the vaccine, and also you should not get the vaccine if you have any allergy to yeast. Gardasil does not contain any live or dead virus but can still cause infections at the injection site if the patient has an allergic reaction to the vaccine. http://cervical-cancer. emedtv. om/gardasil/gardasil-precautions-and-warnings. html There is controversy surrounding this vaccine because there are those who believe that Gardasil may cause some parents think twice about giving a vaccine against a STD to pre-teens. Other parents might not want a vaccine against a STD at all, believing that their children could not be at risk. And still others think that Gardasil might encourage promiscuity, since it co uld foster the belief that it protects against STDs. There are also numerous news articles and television reports about the Gardasil vaccine eing responsible for miscarriages, and even death. There have been 3,461 adverse reactions, including eight deaths, reported since the vaccine was approved for use in girls as young as 9 in June 2006. The FDA and U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have concluded most side effects are minor and believe there is no reason to re-examine the drugs approval. You can find information in regards to this report on the following webpage: cnsnews. com/public/content/article. aspx? RsrcID=7678 : Another controversy surrounding the drug Gardasil is that it contains 225 mcg of aluminum and, although aluminum has been used in vaccines for decades, they were never tested for safety in clinical trials. Merck and the FDA did not disclose how much aluminum was used in making the placebo of Gardasil. The FDA allowed Merck to use a potentially reactive aluminum-containing placebo as a control for most trial participants, rather than a non-reactive saline solution placebo. Aluminum can cause nerve cell death. fda. gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/06/briefing/2006-4222B3. df About 60 percent of those injected with Gardasil or the aluminum placebo had systemic adverse events including headache, fever, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, and myalgia. Some patients experienced lesions at the injection site, and other types of rashes and skin abruptions. Which some may argue are direct causes of the placebos and vaccines containing Aluminum derivatives. The link below shows an article that I found interesting, it is a paper that was written by Oxford Journals. http://brain. oxfordjournals. org/cgi/content/abstract/124/9/1821. The Gardasil vaccine may very in the way parents or doctors view it. I personally and as a parent, would not get this vaccine nor consider having my 19 year old daughter get it. There is too little known about this drug. There are vaccines that are needed and some that are just another way the pharmaceutical companies make money by using humans as lab rats. I don’t wrong any parent who believes in Gardasil. My only advice would be to research everything about a drug before you get it. You never know what information good or bad is out there on it. If you read something and your first mind tells you something isn’t right†¦then it usually isn’t.