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Friday, February 23, 2007

Vaccine to Prevent Cancer

There is a new vaccine called Gardasil that can prevent the human papillomavirus (HPV), which has been identified to cause cervical cancer. This is wonderful news. However, the talk about making it mandatory for school aged girls to take the vaccine concerns me.

I have three daughters, and I wouldn't want to see any of them get cancer. What mother would? However, I don't know that I would give them the vaccine. Never mind the moral implications or the cost, they really don't matter much to me. What matters is that I don't believe this vaccine has been proven enough yet.

I think this rush to push it on the public is another ploy by lobbyists to make their companies money. I think if this drug proves itself over time, that parents will willingly sign up to have their children vaccinated rather than being mandated to do so (we do it for all the other vaccines, don't we?). Side effects from this vaccine though are yet undetermined. There have been adverse side-effects from vaccines previously, this one is no different and no one wants their daughters to be guinea pigs for this drug. Thanks, but no thanks.

I was rather relieved to hear that Merck, the manufacturer, has decided to back off on lobbying for making the vaccine mandatory. For now anyway.

What would you do? Would you have your daughter/s vaccinated?

10 comments:

MrsPartyGirl said...

i have the same stand, jmom. i wouldn't even want that vaccine injected in my body, lalo pa to my daughter. not unless i know what its side effects are or that if it actually works.

as a mom, who wouldn't want to protect her child from something preventable like cervical cancer? but i just hope they give me the chance to decide for myself and for my daughter.

Anonymous said...

This is great news. But I also agree with you, they should do a massive information campaign first about the vaccine and allow people to decide whether they want it or not.

Anonymous said...

I've seen this also in TFC but I'm not sure if I'll allow my daughter to have this vaccination.

Joan said...

I agree with you however my coworker has a daughter in college. Her roommate was just diagnosed with cervical cancer. I would keep informed and keep an open dialog with your doctor. My daughter is only 9 so I'm hoping more will be known by then.

Mec said...

there's also this feature in the Feb Readers Digest (Asia) that a good dose of sunlight helps prevent more cancer... outweighing the risks for getting skin cancer...

and i actually feel that this is probably true... living sedentary lifestyles hasn't contributed anythng good to us anyway, so why not get enough sunlight :)

they're not suggesting hours on end of sunlight exposure naman... arnd 30 mins ata w/o sunscreen... of course, it'd be best if you get your sun very early in the morning... or late in the afternoon :)

Francesca said...

thats fantastic news. But hope it does not produce side effects in the future. Wait and see muna drama ko about that, and if its goes well to all 100%, saka...
just making my rounds, to see if everyone is behaving, lol
bon weekend, jmom. See yah!

vernaloo said...

hi JMom :)

yeah...better to know first the side-effects. It's better that way than plunging into something that you're not fully knowledgeable about :)

Anonymous said...

i agree that both merck and the government should do a massive information campaign about the vaccine and its possible side-effects...as well as continue clinical testing to determine if there are still so far unknown side effects.

i don't think this was even the right time to bring up the topic of *mandatory* vaccinations...merck and/or the government should give parents ample time to learn about the vaccine, understand its side effects, and even have discussions with their daughters about the implications of the vaccination.

Nick Ballesteros said...

I also agree with you. If I had a daughter, I will make sure that this drug will indeed be beneficial to them and not follow the sheep to the slaughterhouse blindly.

JMom said...

Hi everyone! thanks for your comments. I do agree that they need to educate the public first before making it mandatory. Sometimes, even if you know people are going to do it anyway, it's always makes everyone feel better when they feel they have made the choice rather than "being made to do it". I guess that rebel inside of us is hard to get rid of :)

Joan, cervial cancer, or any cancer for that matter, is scary. I too am hoping that more will be known about the vaccine soon. My two older daughter are now in their teens and would probably benefit from this shot, but I am still inclined to wait and see.

I agree with you, petite, we should have a chance to be more educated about it and have some dialog with our daughters.

Mec, I think I saw the article you mentioned. O di ba, that's one example of 'the experts' swinging back and forth on what's good for us. Before they were saying that exposure to sun causes cancer...now it prevents it.

That's why I think education, education. We all need to do our own research sometimes and decide for ourselves.