Have Questions About HPV?
September 16, 2007 by Kristen King
Filed under Women's Health
You’re not alone. That’s why HPVtest.com is a great resource for all women concerned about their risk of HPV and cervical cancer.
Here are some features I particularly enjoy:
- Advice is categorized by age (or risk group) to make it easy to find the most pertinent info for your situation.
- They offer a cool quiz to help you differentiate between cervical cancer myth and fact.
- An active community hosted on the site puts you in touch with other real women.
- There’s a men’s section.
The information is solid and the advice strong, but you do need to know that the site is funded by major pharmaceutical company Qiagen.
Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King
There is indeed many myth’s floating about relating to HPV. Canada recently voted on whether to make the vaccine universally mandatory, and came up with this information during their investigation.
-Cervical cancer is far from epidemic in their country, with only 400 deaths yearly, a rate that has been steadily declining;
-Most HPV infections resolve spontaneously;
-The vaccine was not trialed sufficiently in adolescents, the group being targeted for universal vaccination;
-The long-term efficacy of the vaccine against cervical cancer in the population has yet to be proven, in light of the fact that it protects against only two of the subtypes that cause cervical cancer and its duration of effect is not known;
-The vaccine is too new and the clinical trials were all industry-sponsored;
-The true costs are not determined.
Although not every point is relevant to us here in America, there are several good points.