HPV - To Vaccine or not to Vaccine

Is this vaccine, be it Gardasil or Cervarix, just one vaccine that is really not essential?
Its results are still to come of course. At this stage, we do not know if the vaccination programme in the long term is either safe or effective.

Having just attended a talk on the Human Papilloma Virus, HPV, it was enlightening to say the least. Interesting that it is agreed that the vaccination is ineffective in women who are already sexually active, so therefore needs to be given to young girls, very young girls in fact! but it is not known if the vaccine is 'protective' for life.

We could well be allowing young girls to be vaccinated for something that hopefully they will not contract due to their age and not sexually active, yet when they finally reach that stage of their lives, the vaccine could well have lost any protective quality it may have had.
By this time they will be sexually active and the vaccine is then considered ineffective!!......

Doesn't this seem ironic?

But what if it is decided that the vaccine would be offered to all women? Well a study shows that where the vaccine was used for sexually active women, they had a greater chance of developing cervical cancer! some increase of 44%

The issue of vaccination is a whole debating subject on its own, but if we just look at the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines, both of these are set to protect against only 4 or 2 strands of the HPV and genital warts in the case of Gardasil, respectively, we see that we are spending money on a drug that is barely effective at all given the number of strains of HPV that could be problematic.
Yes, i'm sure they feel that they have selected the most likely strands, but what if it is one of the many other strands that causes a problem, then the vaccine is likely to give a false sense of protection.

Let us hope that they never do away with regular smear tests, just in case it is one of the other strands causing a problem, or we discover that the vaccine has a short protection or like many vaccines, none at all or very insignificant.

Our speaker informed us that from June this year in the UK, when a smear test is given, if any abnormal cells are found, then a test for HPV will be carried out. If this is also present then those women will be referred to the Colcoscopy Clinic.

I can see more women being fearful, to then come under a hospital department for what is very likely the innocent development of a virus that due to its transient nature will naturally be dealt with by the bodies immune system.

As my previous blog stated, the presence of HPV is not always there for cervical cancer to develop and equally we can have the virus and never develop cancer.
Our expert speaker agreed that it is a transient virus and so by its very nature comes and goes, so why do some develop cancer and others not?
When i asked her this question, her answer was immunity! When i asked how that might be rectified, her answer was diet, eat more veg!, stop smoking etc, but it was said with a certain flippancy as if no one would do that, so lets vaccinate instead.

Well are we really that stupid that we think a vaccine will then allow us to not look after our own immunity?
If that is the case, what a sad indictment on society. We want the state to stick a needle in us so we don't have to bother.

Surely we should be looking at what is causing the problem ie why do some develop cancer and others don't and if that is falling on poor immunity, then lets fix that problem. A vaccine will put pressure on the immune system in a way that is alien to the body, therefore weakening it and not strengthening it. Going for the real cause and addressing that, has got to be better than ignoring that and working on the next stage that allows the HPV to develop.

Wouldn't it be great for our doctors to be knowledgeable on natures medicine - Food!  We may all start to live healthier for longer without the need for vaccinations and other immunorepressant medicines.

If you have daughters being offered the vaccination, don't let ignorance or peer pressure affect your decision. There is no rush to ever having something like a vaccine done - check all the facts first and all the known side effects and remember your child doesn't have to be an acceptable statistic if they fall ill or worse - die,

The US has been using Gardasil and its track record is far from right, so why has the UK opted for this?

Think not of what your doctor can vaccinate you for, but what lifestyle changes you can easily make to improve your chances of remaining well and healthy.