HPV: Health officials recommend vaccine as best option.

Re: Thinking for themselves, Observer editorial.

This editorial concludes that girls and women should make up their own minds about whether to receive the new Human Papilloma Virus vaccine which is being provided at no charge to all Grade 6 and 9 girls in school this fall. Interior Health and Salmon Arm family doctors agree – but before doing so, they need to have important facts at hand. With respect to the benefits provided by the vaccine, they should know that cervical cancer is not that uncommon. It will develop in one out of every 138 Canadian women in their lifetime, a rate that leads to 1,300 new cases being diagnosed every year. This number is misleading because it only reflects the number of women who actually develop cervical cancer. Many women undergo significant interventions that result in this statistic. Of the 750,000 women who are screened for cervical cancer in B.C. each year, 30,000 are abnormal and 5,000 women develop high-grade pre-cancerous changes. These women need to be treated with significant interventions to prevent these changes from developing into cervical cancer. Cervical cancer can also be fatal: 400 Canadian women die from cervical cancer each year. The vaccine prevents approximately 70 per cent of cervical cancer by providing 96 per cent protection against long-standing infection by the two most common types of virus. Protection against genital warts is 90 to 96 per cent. While abstinence can offer protection against cancer and warts in the short term, it is estimated that 80 per cent of sexually active persons will contract Human Papilloma Virus infection during their lifetime. Even though a girl may not be sexually active now, someday she may be. Since vaccination is meant to prevent HPV, not cure or treat it, the vaccine will work best before she becomes sexually active.

Vaccination is an important part of keeping girls healthy, as are teaching about abstinence, safer sex and PAP testing. Adverse reactions related to the vaccine are similar to those associated with other vaccines: pain, swelling and itching at the injection site and fainting. An increase in anaphylaxis (a potentially life-threatening reaction that can occur after administration of any vaccine or medication) was identified in one area of Australia, but has not been identified elsewhere. This rate was 2.6 per 100,000 immunizations based on seven cases, all of which recovered without complications. There have been no reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome (a nervous system disorder) following immunization with this vaccine in Canada. On balance, there exists substantial evidence that this vaccine is a cost-effective measure to improve the health of girls and women, making immunization the best choice.

Dr. Digby Horne, Medical Health Officer; Joanne Smrek, Immunization Promotion/Education