Debate over HPV vaccine 'clouded' by worries about promiscuity

The debate over the Merck's human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil has been "clouded" by "worries about promiscuity," New York Times reporter Denise Grady writes in a column (Grady, New York Times, 3/6).

Gardasil in clinical trials has been shown to be 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18.

According to Merck, Gardasil is about 99% effective in preventing HPV strains 6 and 11, which together with strains 16 and 18 cause about 90% of genital wart cases, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases.

Gardasil also protects against vaginal and vulvar cancers, two other gynecological cancers that are linked to HPV, according to a study presented in June 2006 at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Atlanta.

FDA in July 2006 approved Gardasil for sale and marketing to girls and women ages nine to 26, and CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices later that month voted unanimously to recommend that girls ages 11 and 12 receive the vaccine (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/28).

Grady writes that because HPV is a sexually transmitted infection, "it's tempting to assume that the people who catch it must be promiscuous," adding that the "message from some quarters is that a decent young woman shouldn't need this vaccine."

However, HPV, which is the most common STI in the U.S., is "practically ubiquitous," and women do not "have to be promiscuous" to contract the virus, according to Grady (New York Times, 3/6).

A study in the Feb. 28 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 26.8% of U.S. women and girls ages 14 to 59 have HPV, and about 2% of women and girls in the age group have HPV strains 16 or 18 (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 2/28).

According to Grady, researchers say that "plenty of women with no partners outside marriage are infected" with HPV by their husbands.

"Even some who think that abstinence is unrealistic still imagine that [HPV infection] does not happen to a girl who's had only a boyfriend or two," Grady writes, adding, "It's a misconception that can cost a young woman her health, her fertility and maybe even her life" (New York Times, 3/6).