Good stuff. Australia has a target for eliminating cervical cancer by 2035 and ofcourse HPV is responsible for a large proportion of penile, mouth, throat and anal cancers as well. All my kids got free vaccinations at school.
It is shocking that there are still places in the world where this is controversial. You can tell a lot about the qualities of a society by the way they care for their own.
This discovery, and generally the ground breaking connection between a virus and cancer, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2008.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2008/press-releas...
Good to hear what's happening in the more advanced countries.
There is recent research showing that it can (slightly) help even during HPV infection, see "Effect of HPV Vaccination on Virus Disappearance in Cervical Samples of a Cohort of HPV-Positive Polish Patients", J Clin Med (2023) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38137661/.
Also, the eligibility criterion of not vaccinating people above certain age is NOT valid. I mean, sooner better. But if you are adult and there is any chance that you ever get a new sexual parter, get a vaccine.
90% people with get at least one HPV strain in their life. 10-30% people have at least one HPV strain right now.
(I recommend doing PCR test with strains genotyping. I do it periodically.)
Sure, our organism usually gets rid of such on 1-3 years, with no consequences. Yet, vaccine boosts your immunity.
Also, over 50% of cases of throat cancer are HPV-lead. So if you have male body, also vaccinate - both to protect others and yourself. Ideally for 9 strains, but HPV 16 and HPV 18 are by far the most important.
A few more links: https://pinboard.in/u:pmigdal/t:hpv
I think the history of this is something like:
- it was an expensive vaccine
- it was therefore initially introduced to women as a cervical cancer thing
- HPV however hits men at around half the cancer rate of women but through throat cancer
Or something like that. So actually the benefit to men is of a similar order of magnitude as that to women but it was just given to women to save money. Every child should be given it.
Edit: Total Rate (of HPV caused cancers) in Women: Approximately 15.9 cases per 100,000 females per year.
Total Rate in Men: Approximately 9.3 cases per 100,000 males per year.
Edit 2: Severity-Adjusted HPV Cancer Burden:
When adjusted for the severity and impact on life, the relative burden of HPV-related cancers shifts. Cancers with higher mortality rates and more debilitating treatments, like oropharyngeal cancer, carry a heavier weight.
Total Burden in Men: Approximately 135 DALYs per 100,000 males per year.
Total Burden in Women: Approximately 125 DALYs per 100,000 females per year.
The goal wasn't to eliminate the HPV strains, it was to decrease cervical cancer. Has Denmark encountered a drop in cervical cancer? If so, that's a great outcome!
Cervical cancer really doesn't need to be a thing anymore, the vast majority of cases are oncoviral, and we know how to prevent HPV.
Wasn’t this also the same conclusion for Australia? Cervical cancer plummeted to record rates. Men should still get it so they don’t effect their partners and HPV causes all sort of cancer too.
No worries. Some developed countries[1] will make sure to preserve these strains.
[1] The list has just a single entry for now.
India started one of the biggest programs for HPV vaccines - https://www.news18.com/india/india-bets-on-jan-aushadhi-kend...
Does the vaccine benefit you if you've already been infected?
Is there a test to see if you have the virus already? So I know whether I should take the vaccine.
And I can't get the shot in Germany because I'm "too old" and just assumed to be infected with it already, anyway.
What a great system.
That's great to hear! Here where I am, Ontario, Canada, I just barely missed out on getting the HPV vaccine for free in high school. At the time, they were only vaccinating girls, but added boys a year or two after me.
By way of contrast, America's current top "doctor" organized a class-action lawsuit against the HPV vaccine.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/... ("Kennedy played key role in Gardasil vaccine case against Merck")
> "Details of the Gardasil litigation show how Kennedy took action beyond sowing doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines in the court of public opinion and helped build a case against the pharmaceutical industry before judges and juries."
> "Kennedy, a longtime plaintiffs' lawyer, became involved in the Gardasil litigation in 2018 in collaboration with Robert Krakow, an attorney specializing in vaccine injury cases, Krakow said"
Can I still take that vaccine regardless of sexual activity as a 41 years old male? Will it prevent centers that can cause by HPV?
In the US, there is no male test for HPV
Cervical cancer (uterus), not skin cancer from a bad papillomas as I thought after looking up what HPV meant
"Denmark completely autistic." -Unnamed US federal government secretary
It’s insane to think that someday humanity will finally find a cure for cancer, and then after all this money and research and struggle people will just… choose not to use it.
and why do we trust gavi?
Good news.
Bad news is that many countries came close to wiping out measles et al. too, but it takes sustained effort to keep things like that.
the
I remember arguing in favor of Gardasil as a teenager in highschool. And now RFK Jr calling it dangerous. Someday my head might just explode.
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This article headline is a gross abuse of the conclusions of the actual study which is here: https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.E...
This site is full of people perfectly capable of reading most studies. I would much rather see these links go to studies than endless clickbait articles about studies.
The conclusion of the study show that about 30% of the women in the study from 2017-2014 tested positive for one of several types of HPV infection. This does appear to be a reduction from an earlier 2013 study but the earlier study was by different authors with different methodology so gauging the scale of the reduction is not straightforward. My opinion is that a safe conclusion of the study is that HPV prevalence has not increased.
Denmark is in a chronic baby shortage [1] and people in Western democracies are having less sex generally [2]. So, yay, less HPV. Go get vaccinated [3]. Unfortunately, there are some pretty significant (and sad, yes, sad) confounders.
[1] https://www.sdu.dk/en/nyheder/faldende-fertilitet
[2] https://www.google.com/search?q=western+democracies+decreasi...
If you're living in the US: please consider getting the vaccine, ragardless of your age. It was covered by my (rather shitty) health insurance. It consists of just 2 (EDIT: 3 for adults!) doses. It is recommended for both Males and Females.