For the first time, a simple injection holds the promise of bringing us close to the future elimination of a specific cause of cancer.
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Symptoms can arise years after infection. “There are still other HPV types that can cause cervical cancer that are not contained in the vaccine as well as other causes and types of cervical cancer which are not HPV-related (which is why it is still important for women in their 20s to undergo regular cervical screening annually or as advised by their OB/Gyn)”.
With around 6,000 new cases detected annually, cervical cancer claims the lives of 4,380 Filipino women every year.
“Any process for requesting an opt-out should have an educational component and encourage parents to carefully consider their decision”, said William Calo, PhD, JD, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of North Carolina.
“Given the many challenges to enacting HPV vaccine requirements, it’s unlikely that a large number of states will pass these laws in the near future”, said Calo in a statement.
In 2006, when the vaccination was first created, Tea Party poster girl Michele Bachmann led a fierce campaign against it. Vaccinating children at the age of 11 or 12 is the best option as opposed to waiting until individuals become sexually active.
Health professionals insist there is no logical connection tying the preventative treatment to increasing rates of sexual intercourse.
Because HPV protects against preventable cancers, Bernstein said it is most effective when it is administered earlier, before the conditions exist for those cancers to develop. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise of the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, biology, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer by annually convening more than 30 conferences and educational workshops, the largest of which is the AACR Annual Meeting with almost 19,500 attendees. In a new report, the cancer society says 11- and 12-year-old girls and boys should be vaccinated to guard against cancers associated with HPV.
Limitations: The authors noted that a limitation of this study is that it asked about hypothetical school-entry requirements, rather than actual laws, and did not describe the scope of opt-out provisions.
For a lot of kids, back to school means vaccinations. Researchers from multiple institutions, including the University of North Carolina, surveyed an ethnically diverse group of more than 1,500 parents of 11 to 17-year-olds from around the country.
They used a web-based survey between November 2014 and January 2015. That number jumped to nearly 60% when including an opt-out provision.
“It would be hard for law makers to enact a policy that has 21 percent support”, Brewer said.
‘Parents like the idea of generous opt-outs to school entry requirements’.
But parents must face reality: HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States, infecting about 79 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hispanic parents had higher odds of agreeing with the requirements than non-Hispanic whites.
Main aim of the study researchers was to know the current views of parents on the vaccine considering the fact that states have been thinking the vaccine to be a requirement for school admission. “We would expect the number to be much higher given that national organizations have promoted the vaccine for the last decade”. We have to continue to communicate that the vaccine is an effective way to prevent cancer’.
Previous research has shown that school-entry requirements contributed to increased vaccination rates for Hepatitis B, Tdap and MMR, said Calo. Calo said changing some of those perceptions would be beneficial for improving HPV vaccination rates and for legislating school-entry requirements.
In addition, the study found several factors influenced approval of the vaccination requirements.
“If a vaccine is not required, people just don’t take it seriously”.
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The journal Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention will publish the findings online on August 19 and in its print edition September 1.
