Gardasil

HPV Vaccine Linked to Premature Menopause in Young Girls.

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Dr. Deirdre Little, a pediatrician in Australia, was the first one to sound the alarm over the HPV vaccine causing premature menopause when she observed it in one of her 16 year old patients in 2012. Dr. Little published a paper in the British Medical Journal warning that the premature menopause of a healthy 16-year-old girl may be linked to the Gardasil vaccination.

Injection

 

Now, a new study has just been recently published in the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology documenting three more cases of “Primary Ovarian Failure,” where three young girls stopped having periods and showed signs of menopause. The study confirms Dr. Little’s experience, and was conducted in Israel and Italy. The authors concluded:

We documented here the evidence of the potential of the HPV vaccine to trigger a life-disabling autoimmune condition. The increasing number of similar reports of post HPV vaccine-linked autoimmunity and the uncertainty of long-term clinical benefits of HPV vaccination are a matter of public health that warrants further rigorous inquiry.

Countries Outside of the U.S. are Discovering the Dangers of the HPV Vaccine

It is not surprising that this study was not conducted in the U.S. As Dr. Deirdre Little observed back in 2012, the Gardasil manufacturer did not conduct studies on ovarian effects of the vaccine or any studies regarding ongoing fertility effects. Gardasil has become a huge financial success, and is one of the most lucrative vaccines in the market.

But the side effects to Gardasil, which are more than just Primary Ovarian Failure, are becoming more and more known as sales of Gardasil might be slowing down, or at least not increasing as fast as the manufacturers would like them to. In countries where the vaccine is not produced, studies like the one referenced above are being conducted since it is apparent they will probably not be done in the U.S. The health ministry of Japan recently issued a nationwide notice that HPV vaccinations should no longer be recommended for girls aged 12 to 16 because so many adverse reactions have been reported.

Menarche-Aged-Girl-with-Dragonfly-by-Catarina-Carneiro-de-Sousa

Why Aren’t the Dangers of the HPV Vaccine Being Investigated in the U.S.?

So while other countries are beginning to put the brakes on the HPV vaccine and doing their own research, what is happening in the U.S.? The mainstream media, apparently simply reprinting press releases directly from the pharmaceutical companies, is actually portraying the HPV vaccines as one of the safest vaccines around, and lamenting the fact that more girls are not getting it! Here are some examples:

Doctors say HPV vaccine is safe and “grossly underutilized” – Need for vaccine ‘not understood’ by parents – from Medical News Today, July 27, 2013

HPV vaccination rate stalls. ‘We’re dropping the ball,’ CDC says – ”The vaccine is safe and effective,” Schuchat said. “We need doctors to recommend it and deliver it.” – from Los Angeles Times, July 25, 2013

Parents’ Worries About HPV Vaccine on the Rise: Study – from U.S. News and World Report, March 18, 2013 Quote:

Both Darden and Cunningham said it’s puzzling that parents’ safety worries about the HPV vaccine would grow so much, so fast. It’s not clear from the study, but Cunningham said he suspects many parents get misinformation online.

“There’s a lot of unreliable vaccine information out there,” he said. As for safety, he suggested that parents with concerns go to reliable online sites, like the CDC website, and talk with their child’s doctor.

As for the Israeli/Italian peer-reviewed study which is indexed on PubMed, the NIH website, linking HPV vaccines to causing girls to go into premature menopause? Not a peep in the U.S. mainstream media….

Earlier this year, Jeffry John Aufderheide of Vactruth.org revealed that Merck, the manufacturer of Gradasil, paid out over $18 million in speaking fees to doctors to promote their drugs, including Gardasil. So are medical doctors in the U.S. really the best source of knowledge on the side effects of a vaccine they are paid to promote??

As far as trusting the CDC website: Julie Gerberding was in charge of the CDC from 2002 to 2009, which includes the years the FDA approved Gardasil as a vaccine. Soon after she took over the CDC, she reportedly completely overhauled the agency’s organizational structure, and many of the CDC’s senior scientists and leaders either left or announced plans to leave. Some have claimed that almost all of the replacements Julie Gerberding appointed had ties to the vaccine industry.

Gerberding resigned from the CDC on January 20, 2009, and is now the president of Merck’s Vaccine division, a $5 billion dollar a year operation, and the supplier of the largest number of vaccines the CDC recommends (article here).

Do you think this might be one reason why the U.S. is not investigating or even reporting the negative side effects of the HPV vaccine?

Then there is the issue of how much money the government makes off of royalties from the HPV vaccines. In November 2010, Dr. Eric Suba submitted a Freedom of Information Request to the Office of Government Information Services to discover the amount of money the U.S government earns from Merck’s sale of Gardasil. But apparently the government is immune from revealing those figures, as you can read for yourself the response Dr. Suba received here.

So not only is the CDC not publishing the dangers of the HPV vaccine, but two years ago they recommended young boys get the vaccine also, and there is a push on now to start giving it to infants. In the state of California, a bill funded by Gardasil producer Merck was passed allowing schools to administer the HPV vaccine to girls without their parent’s consent or knowledge.

In the United States, there are several websites and Facebook pages that tell the stories of young women who have suffered from the effects of the HPV vaccine, or even worse, have died. You won’t likely get this information from your doctor, and you will certainly not find it on government websites. Here are a few:

Sane Vax, Inc.

One More Girl

Gardasil Kills

Source: http://healthimpactnews.com

 

Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine and Primary Ovarian Failure: Another Facet of the Autoimmune/Inflammatory Syndrome Induced by Adjuvants..

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Source

Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases Sheba Medical Center, Tel-Hashomer, Israel; Rheumatology Unit, Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialities, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

PROBLEM:

Post-vaccination autoimmune phenomena are a major facet of the autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA) and different vaccines, including HPV, have been identified as possible causes.

METHOD OF STUDY:

The medical history of three young women who presented with secondary amenorrhea following HPV vaccination was collected. Data regarding type of vaccine, number of vaccination, personal, clinical and serological features, as well as response to treatments were analyzed.

RESULTS:

All three patients developed secondary amenorrhea following HPV vaccinations, which did not resolve upon treatment with hormone replacement therapies. In all three cases sexual development was normal and genetic screen revealed no pertinent abnormalities (i.e., Turner’s syndrome, Fragile X test were all negative). Serological evaluations showed low levels of estradiol and increased FSH and LH and in two cases, specific auto-antibodies were detected (antiovarian and anti thyroid), suggesting that the HPV vaccine triggered an autoimmune response. Pelvic ultrasound did not reveal any abnormalities in any of the three cases. All three patients experienced a range of common non-specific post-vaccine symptoms including nausea, headache, sleep disturbances, arthralgia and a range of cognitive and psychiatric disturbances. According to these clinical features, a diagnosis of primary ovarian failure (POF) was determined which also fulfilled the required criteria for the ASIA syndrome.

CONCLUSION:

We documented here the evidence of the potential of the HPV vaccine to trigger a life-disabling autoimmune condition. The increasing number of similar reports of post HPV vaccine-linked autoimmunity and the uncertainty of long-term clinical benefits of HPV vaccination are a matter of public health that warrants further rigorous inquiry.

Source: Pubmed

 

Gardasil and Cervarix don’t work, are dangerous, and weren’t tested.

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Dr. Diane Harper was the lead researcher in the development of the human papilloma virus vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix. She is the latest to come forward and question the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines. She made the surprising announcement at the 4th International Public Conference on Vaccination, which took place in Reston, Virginia on Oct. 2nd through 4th, 2009. Her speech was supposed to promote the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines, but she instead turned on her corporate bosses in a very public way. When questioned about the presentation, audience members remarked that they came away feeling that the vaccines should not be used.

“I came away from the talk with the perception that the risk of adverse side effects is so much greater than the risk of cervical cancer, I couldn’t help but question why we need the vaccine at all.”  – Joan Robinson

Dr. Harper explained in her presentation that the cervical cancer risk in the U.S. is already extremely low, and that vaccinations are unlikely to have any effect upon the rate of cervical cancer in the United States. In fact, 70% of all H.P.V. infections resolve themselves without treatment in a year, and the number rises to well over 90% in two years. Harper also mentioned the safety angle. All trials of the vaccines were done on children aged 15 and above, despite them currently being marketed for 9-year-olds. So far, 15,037 girls have reported adverse side effects from Gardasil alone to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (V.A.E.R.S.), and this number only reflects parents who underwent the hurdles required for reporting adverse reactions. At the time of writing, 44 girls are officially known to have died from these vaccines. The reported side effects include Guillian Barré Syndrome (paralysis lasting for years, or permanently — sometimes eventually causing suffocation), lupus, seizures, blood clots, and brain inflammation. Parents are usually not made aware of these risks. Dr. Harper, the vaccine developer, claimed that she was speaking out, so that she might finally be able to sleep at night.

“About eight in every ten women who have been sexually active will have H.P.V. at some stage of their life. Normally there are no symptoms, and in 98 per cent of cases it clears itself. But in those cases where it doesn’t, and isn’t treated, it can lead to pre-cancerous cells which may develop into cervical cancer.”  – Dr. Diane Harper

One must understand how the establishment’s word games are played to truly understand the meaning of the above quote, and one needs to understand its unique version of “science”. When they report that untreated cases “can” lead to something that “may” lead to cervical cancer, it really means that the relationship is merely a hypothetical conjecture that is profitable if people actually believe it. In other words, there is no demonstrated relationship between the condition being vaccinated for and the rare cancers that the vaccine might prevent, but it is marketed to do that nonetheless. In fact, there is no actual evidence that the vaccine can prevent any cancer. From the manufacturers own admissions, the vaccine only works on 4 strains out of 40 for a specific venereal disease that dies on its own in a relatively short period, so the chance of it actually helping an individual is about about the same as the chance of him being struck by a meteorite. Why do nine-year-old girls need vaccinations for extremely rare and symptom-less venereal diseases that the immune system usually kills anyway?

Sources: RealFarmacy.com

 

Oncology Dietitian Exposes Fraud in CDC’s HPV Vaccine Effectiveness Study.

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Story at-a-glance

  • An oncology dietitian has pointed out significant discrepancies in a new HPV vaccine effectiveness study that claims the vaccine’s effectiveness is “high”
  • Recent reductions in HPV infection prevalence among young women in the US cannot be said to be due to introduction of Gardasil vaccine in 2006 and use of HPV vaccines by pre-teen and teenage girls since then; the data clearly shows that unvaccinated girls had the best outcome
  • In 2007-2010, HPV prevalence dropped 27.3 percent in the unvaccinated girls, but only declined by 5.8 percent in the vaccinated group. In four out of five different measures, the unvaccinated girls had a lower incidence of HPV
  • According to Merck’s own research before Gardasil was licensed, if you’ve been exposed to HPV strains 16 or 18 prior to receiving Gardasil vaccine, you could increase your risk of precancerous lesions by 44.6 percent.
  • Judicial Watch has received previously withheld documents from the DDHS, which reveal that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has awarded $5,877,710 to 49 victims for harm resulting from the HPV vaccine.
  • vaccine

There are currently two HPV vaccines on the market, but if there was any regard for sound scientific evidence, neither would be promoted as heavily as they are. The first, Gardasil, was licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2006. It is now recommended as a routine vaccination for girls and women between the ages of 9-26 in the US.

On October 25, 2011, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also voted to recommend giving the HPV vaccine to males between the ages of 11 and 21. The second HPV vaccine, Cervarix, was licensed in 2009.

Most recently, an oncology dietitian pointed out significant discrepancies2 in a new HPV vaccine effectiveness study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases3, which evaluated data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), 2003-2006 and 2007-2010.

The study pointed out that HPV vaccine uptake among young girls in the US has been low but concluded that:

“Within four years of vaccine introduction, the vaccine-type HPV prevalence decreased among females aged 14–19 years despite low vaccine uptake. The estimated vaccine effectiveness was high.”

Assessing the Overall Impact of the HPV Vaccine

In her article4, Sharlene Bidini, RD, CSO, points out that the study’s conclusion was based on 740 girls, of which only 358 were sexually active, and of those, only 111 had received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine. In essence, the vast majority was unvaccinated, and nearly half were not at risk of HPV since they weren’t sexually active.

“If the study authors were trying to determine vaccine effectiveness, why did they include the girls who had not received a single HPV shot or did not report having sex?” she writes.

“Table 1 from the journal article compares 1,363 girls, aged 14-19, in the pre-vaccine era (2003-2006) to all 740 girls in the post-vaccine era (2007-2010) regardless of sexual history or immunization status.”

In the pre-vaccine era, an estimated 53 percent of sexually active girls between the ages of 14-19 had HPV. Between 2007 and 2010, the overall prevalence of HPV in the same demographic declined by just over 19 percent to an overall prevalence of nearly 43 percent.

As Bidini points out, this reduction in HPV prevalence can NOT be claimed to be due to the effectiveness of HPV vaccinations. On the contrary, the data clearly shows that it was the unvaccinated girls in this group that had the best outcome!

“In 2007-2010, the overall prevalence of HPV was 50 percent in the vaccinated girls (14-19 years), but only 38.6 percent in the unvaccinated girls of the same age.

Therefore, HPV prevalence dropped 27.3 percent in the unvaccinated girls, but only declined by 5.8 percent in the vaccinated group. In four out of five different measures, the unvaccinated girls had a lower incidence of HPV,” she writes.

Furthermore, in the single instance where unvaccinated girls had a 9.5 percent higher prevalence of HPV, a note stated that the relative standard error was greater than 30 percent, leading Bidini to suspect that “the confidence interval values must have been extremely wide. Therefore, this particular value is subject to too much variance and doesn’t have much value.”

Another fact hidden among the reported data was that among the 740 girls included in the post-vaccine era (2007-2010), the prevalence of high-risk, non-vaccine types of HPV also significantly declined, from just under 21 percent to just over 16 percent.

So, across the board, HPV of all types, whether included in the vaccine or not, declined. This points to a reduction in HPV prevalence that has nothing to do with vaccine coverage. Besides, vaccine uptake was very LOW to begin with.

All in all, one can conclude that there were serious design flaws involved in this study—whether intentional or not—leading the researchers to erroneously conclude that the vaccine effectiveness was “high.” Clearly the effectiveness of the vaccine was anything but high, since the unvaccinated group fared far better across the board.

Case Report of a Gardasil Death Confirms Presence of HPV DNA Fragments

Earlier this year, a lab scientist, who discovered HPV DNA fragments in the blood of a teenage girl who died after receiving the Gardasil vaccine, published a case report in the peer reviewed journal Advances in Bioscience and Biotechnology5. The otherwise healthy girl died in her sleep six months after receiving her third and final dose of the HPV vaccine. A full autopsy revealed no cause of death.

Sin Hang Lee with the Milford Molecular Laboratory in Connecticut confirmed the presence of HPV-16 L1 gene DNA in the girl’s postmortem blood and spleen tissue. These DNA fragments are also found in the vaccine. The fragments were protected from degradation by binding firmly to the particulate aluminum adjuvant used in the vaccine.

“The significance of these HPV DNA fragments of a vaccine origin found in post-mortem materials is not clear and warrants further investigation,” he wrote.

Lee suggests the presence of HPV DNA fragments of vaccine origin might offer a plausible explanation for the high immunogenicity of Gardasil, meaning that the vaccine has the ability to provoke an exaggerated immune response. He points out that the rate of anaphylaxis in girls receiving Gardasil is far higher than normal—reportedly five to 20 times higher than any other school-based vaccination program!

HPV Vaccine Is Associated with Serious Health Risks, Including Sudden Death

Many women are not aware that the HPV vaccine Gardasil might actually increase your risk of cervical cancer. Initially, that information came straight from Merck and was presented to the FDA prior to approval6. According to Merck’s own research, if you have been exposed to HPV strains 16 or 18 prior to receipt of Gardasil vaccine, you could increase your risk of precancerous lesions, or worse, by 44.6 percent.

Other health problems associated with Gardasil vaccine include immune-based inflammatory neurodegenerative disorders, suggesting that something is causing the immune system to overreact in a detrimental way—sometimes fatally.

  • Between June 1, 2006 and December 31, 2008, there were 12,424 reported adverse events following Gardasil vaccination, including 32 deaths. The girls, who were on average 18 years old, died within two to 405 days after their last Gardasil injection
  • Between May 2009 and September 2010, 16 additional deaths after Gardasil vaccination were reported. For that timeframe, there were also 789 reports of “serious” Gardasil adverse reactions, including 213 cases of permanent disability and 25 diagnosed cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome
  • Between September 1, 2010 and September 15, 2011, another 26 deaths were reported following HPV vaccination
  • As of May 13, 2013, VAERS had received 29,686 reports of adverse events following HPV vaccinations, including 136 reports of death,7, as well as 922 reports of disability, and 550 life-threatening adverse events

Lawsuit Reveals Payouts of Nearly $6 Million to HPV Vaccine-Damaged Victims

On February 28, 2013 the government watchdog group Judicial Watch announced it had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to obtain records from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) related to the HPV vaccine8. The lawsuit was filed in order to force the DHHS to comply with an earlier FOIA request, filed in November 2012, which had been ignored. As reported by WND.com9:

“Judicial Watch wants all records relating to the VICP, any documented injuries or deaths associated with HPV vaccines and all records of compensation paid to the claimants following injury or death allegedly associated with the HPV vaccines… The number of successful claims made under the VICP to victims of HPV will provide further information about any dangers of the vaccine, including the number of well-substantiated cases of adverse reactions.”

On March 20, Judicial Watch announced it had received the FOIA documents from the DDHS, which revealed that the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has awarded $5,877,710 to 49 victims for harm resulting from the HPV vaccine. According to the press release10: “On March 12, 2013, The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of HHS, provided Judicial Watch with documents revealing the following information:

  • Only 49 of the 200 claims filed have been compensated for injury or death caused from the (HPV) vaccine. Of the 49 compensated claims, 47 were for injury caused from the (HPV) vaccine. The additional 2 claims were for death caused due to the vaccine.
  • 92 (nearly half) of the total 200 claims filed are still pending. Of those pending claims, 87 of the claims against the (HPV) vaccine were filed for injury. The remaining 5 claims were filed for death.
  • 59 claims have been dismissed outright by VICP. The alleged victims were not compensated for their claims against the HPV vaccine. Of the claims dismissed, 57 were for injuries, 2 were for deaths allegedly caused by the HPV vaccine.
  • The amount awarded to the 49 claims compensated totaled 5,877,710.87 dollars. This amounts to approximately $120,000 per claim.

This new information from the government shows that the serious safety concerns about the use of Gardasil have been well-founded,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Public health officials should stop pushing Gardasil on children.”

Review of HPV Trials Conclude Effectiveness Is Still Unproven

Last year, a systematic review11 of pre- and post-licensure trials of the HPV vaccine by researchers at University of British Columbia showed that the vaccine’s effectiveness is not only overstated (through the use of selective reporting or “cherry picking” data) but also unproven. In the summary of the clinical trial review, the authors state it quite clearly:

“We carried out a systematic review of HPV vaccine pre- and post-licensure trials to assess the evidence of their effectiveness and safety. We found that HPV vaccine clinical trials design, and data interpretation of both efficacy and safety outcomes, were largely inadequate. Additionally, we note evidence of selective reporting of results from clinical trials (i.e., exclusion of vaccine efficacy figures related to study subgroups in which efficacy might be lower or even negative from peer-reviewed publications).

Given this, the widespread optimism regarding HPV vaccines long-term benefits appears to rest on a number of unproven assumptions (or such which are at odds with factual evidence) and significant misinterpretation of available data.

For example, the claim that HPV vaccination will result in approximately 70% reduction of cervical cancers is made despite the fact that the clinical trials data have not demonstrated to date that the vaccines have actually prevented a single case of cervical cancer (let alone cervical cancer death), nor that the current overly optimistic surrogate marker-based extrapolations are justified.

Likewise, the notion that HPV vaccines have an impressive safety profile is only supported by highly flawed design of safety trials and is contrary to accumulating evidence from vaccine safety surveillance databases and case reports which continue to link HPV vaccination to serious adverse outcomes (including death and permanent disabilities).

We thus conclude that further reduction of cervical cancers might be best achieved by optimizing cervical screening (which carries no such risks) and targeting other factors of the disease rather than by the reliance on vaccines with questionable efficacy and safety profiles.” [Emphasis mine]

Talk to Your Kids about HPV and Gardasil

There are better ways to protect yourself or your young daughters against cancer than getting Gardasil or Cervarix vaccinations, and it’s important you let your children know this. In more than 90 percent of HPV infections, HPV infection is cleared within two years on its own, so keeping your immune system strong is far more important than getting vaccinated.

In addition, HPV infection is spread through sexual contact and research12 has demonstrated that using condoms can reduce your risk of HPV infection by 70 percent, which is far more effective than the HPV vaccine. Because this infection is sexually transmitted, the risk of infection can be greatly reduced by lifestyle choices, including abstinence. In addition, there are high risk factors for chronic HPV infection including smoking, co-infection with herpes, Chlamydia or HIV and long-term birth control use. Women chronically infected with HPV for many years, who don’t get pre-cancerous cervical lesions promptly identified and treated, can develop cervical cancer and die.

So it is important to remember that, even if they get vaccinated, girls and women should get Pap test screening every few years for cervical changes that may indicate pre-cancerous lesions because there is little guarantee that either Gardasil or Cervarix vaccinations will prevent cervical cancer. After Pap test screening became a routine part of health care for American women in the 1960’s, cervical cancer cases in the U.S. dropped 74 percent and continued Pap testing is recommended for women who receive HPV vaccines.

Why We Must Protect Vaccine Exemptions

There can be no doubt that we are in urgent need of a serious vaccine safety review in the US. Quality science is simply not being done. And very few vaccine recommendations, which prop up state vaccine mandates, stand on firm scientific ground. Your right to vaccine exemptions is also increasingly under threat.

I urge you to get involved in the monumentally important task of defending YOUR right to know and freedom to choose which vaccines you and your child will use. The non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), has been preventing vaccine injuries and deaths through public education for more than 30 years and is leading the advocacy effort in the states to protect vaccine exemptions. Supporting NVIC is one way you can help, in addition to signing up for the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal so you stay informed about threats to vaccine exemptions in your state and contact your state legislators to make your voice heard.

All across the United States, people are fighting for their right not to be injected with vaccines against their will. These threats come in a variety of guises like California bill AB49913, which permits minor children as young as 12 years old to be vaccinated with sexually transmitted disease vaccines like Gardasil without parental knowledge or parental consent! In light of the evidence that HPV vaccines have not been proven safe or effective, how wise is it to allow doctors to give a minor child Gardasil or Cervarix vaccinations without informing and getting the consent of parents? How are parents supposed to monitor their children for signs of a vaccine reaction if they don’t even know their children have been given a vaccine? It’s nothing short of reprehensible.

I cannot stress enough how critical it is to get involved and stand up for your human right to exercise informed consent to vaccination and protect your legal right to obtain medical and non-medical vaccine exemptions. This does not mean you have to opt out of all vaccinations if you decide that you want to give one or more vaccines to your child. The point is, EVERYONE should have the right to evaluate the potential benefits and real risks of any pharmaceutical product, including vaccines, and opt out of any vaccine they decide is unnecessary or not in the best interest of their child’s health. Every child is different and has a unique personal and family medical history, which may include severe allergies or autoimmune and neurological disorders, that could increase the risks of vaccination.

It is your parental right to make potentially life-altering health decisions for your own children. Why wouldn’t you want to keep that right—even if you want your child to receive most or all vaccinations currently available? Tomorrow there might be a vaccine youdon’t want your child to receive, but if you’ve failed to support strong informed consent protections in public health laws, which includes the legal right for all Americans to take medical and non-medical vaccine exemptions, you’ve given away your own freedom to choose in the future…

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the following web pages on the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) website at www.NVIC.org:

  • NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.
  • If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.
  • Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment by doctors, employers or school officials for making independent vaccine choices.
  • NVIC Advocacy Portal: Sign up today to be a user of this free online privacy-protected network of concerned citizens all working to educate legislators to protect vaccine exemptions in public health policies and laws.

Connect with Your Doctor or Find a New One That Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don’t want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination.

However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors polled in the past few years admit that they’re starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents. It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

Source: mercola.com

A vaccine that prevents cervical cancer becomes more widely available to millions of women around the world.

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When a major global vaccine alliance announced today that it had struck an agreement with two pharmaceutical companies to drastically reduce the price of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in poor countries, there was plenty to celebrate at Fred Hutch.

Fred Hutch, via Dr. Denise Galloway and colleagues, made major breakthrough contributions to the vaccine that prevents HPV.

Their work showed that HPV is associated with nearly all genital-tract cancers and with many head and neck cancers. Her team also played a pivotal role in identifying how HPV causes cancer.

Cervical cancer used to be one of the most common causes of cancer death among American women, but thanks to widespread use of the Pap test, early detection and the introduction of the HPV vaccine, it’s no longer one of the biggest cancer threats.

“In just 25 years, we went from not having any idea what viruses were involved in these cancers to having a vaccine,” Galloway said in a previous interview about her work. “That’s amazingly fast.”

 

However, Galloway has often said it is imperative to take the vaccine into low-income countries, where HPV is a major killer of women, and where a vaccine would do the most good.

The price of the vaccine, which is about $300 for the three needed doses in the U.S. and other developed nations, is out of reach for poor women in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the world.

And yet, according to the World Health Organization, cervical cancer remains the second most common cancer in the world, with more than 500,000 new cases and 275,000 deaths each year—virtually all linked to HPV. More than 85 percent of cervical cancer deaths occur in developing countries.

This is why the agreement reached by the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization with Merck, the maker of Gardasil vaccine, and GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Cervarix, is so important.

Both companies have agreed to sell their vaccines in poor countries for under $5 per dose.

It’s certainly a transformational moment—a cause for celebration here and around the globe as research continues to move forward against cancer.

Source: questmagazine

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASCO Expert Corner: HPV Vaccination for Cervical Cancer.

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Most cervical cancers are caused by infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Although many women infected with the virus eventually clear the infection, some women develop a persistent (lasting) infection, which is a risk factor for cervical cancer. Approval of two HPV vaccines has prompted questions about the use and effectiveness of these vaccines. To help answer common questions, Cancer.Net discussed the HPV vaccine with Maurie Markman, MD. If you have specific questions, talk with your doctor about whether one of these vaccines is appropriate for you.

Q. What is the purpose of the HPV vaccine, and who needs to be vaccinated?

A. The goal of this vaccination is to prevent the establishment of a persistent HPV infection after a person has been exposed to the virus through sexual contact. Strong scientific evidence demonstrates that a persistent HPV infection is required for cervical cancer to begin developing.

In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first HPV vaccine, called Gardasil, for use in girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26. The vaccine helps prevent infection from the two HPVs known to cause most cervical cancers and precancerous lesions in the cervix. The vaccine also prevents against the two low-risk HPVs known to cause 90% of genital warts. In 2009, FDA approved a second HPV vaccine, called Cervarix, for the prevention of cervical cancer in girls and women ages 10 to 25; it also approved the use of Gardasil in boys and men ages 9 through 26 to prevent genital warts.

Q. How effective is the vaccine?

A. Several large clinical trials have revealed that the vaccine is highly effective in preventing precancerous cervical lesions, assuming a woman does not have a preexisting (before vaccination) persistent HPV infection. Because it takes many years before a precancerous lesion develops into an invasive cancer, it will likely take at least a decade before there will be evidence that the number of new cases of cervical cancer in vaccinated individuals has been reduced. However, in view of the known very strong association between persistent HPV infection, the development of precancerous cervical lesions, and cancer of the cervix, it is essentially certain a substantial reduction in the risk of cervical cancer will be clearly seen with sufficient time for follow-up.

Q. Does the vaccine work right away? How long does it last?

A. The vaccine appears to be very effective in preventing persistent HPV infection, as long as there is no preexisting infection with the virus. It is important to note that the vaccine will not eliminate an existing persistent HPV infection.

It is currently unknown how long a single series of vaccinations with the HPV vaccine will last, and if revaccination will be required, and how often. Existing data suggest that immunity against the development of an infection upon exposure to the virus will last a minimum of three to five years, and perhaps much longer. Further follow-up of people who received the vaccine in clinical trials will provide important information regarding if, and when, the necessary degree of immunity decreases to a point where re-immunization is required.

Q. How does this vaccine affect a woman’s need for a regular Pap test?

A. There have been no specific recommendations for how HPV vaccination should influence existing, well-established guidelines for regular Pap tests. For now, it is strongly recommended that current guidelines should be followed. This important issue will be directly addressed in the future by experts in this area.

Q. What are the most important things a patient should know about the HPV vaccine?

A. Existing data indicate HPV vaccination is both safe and highly effective in preventing persistent infection by a virus known to be the cause of cervical cancer. It is extremely important that patients understand this vaccine works to prevent a persistent HPV infection, but it is not an effective treatment to eliminate such an infection once it is established.

Dr. Markman is Vice President for Clinical Research, Professor of Cancer Medicine, and Chair, Department of Gynecologic Medical Oncology at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He serves as the Cancer.Net Associate Editor for gynecologic cancers.

Source: cancer.net

 

HPV and Cancer.

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Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus that is most commonly transmitted during sex and direct skin-to-skin contact. There are more than 100 different types or strains of HPV. Most men and women aren’t aware they have an HPV infection because they don’t develop any symptoms or health problems. But in some cases, certain types of HPV can cause warts (noncancerous, abnormal growths on the skin) in various parts of the body. In other cases, specific HPV types can cause precancerous lesions (areas of abnormal tissue) or cancer.

How HPV Spreads

Approximately 60 types of HPV have the potential to cause common warts, which grow on areas such as the hands and feet. Approximately 40 of the viruses are called “genital type” HPVs. These viruses are spread from person to person when genitals come into contact, usually during vaginal or anal sex. The virus can also be transmitted through oral sex. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States.

Genital HPV types can infect the genital area of women, including the vulva (outer portion of the vagina), the lining of the vagina, and the cervix (the lower, narrow part of a woman’s uterus), as well as the genital area of men, including the penis. In both men and women, genital HPV can infect the anus and some areas of the head and neck. Sometimes “low-risk” strains of genital HPVs, most commonly HPV-6 or HPV-11, can cause genital warts or lesions to form on or around these locations. The growths can vary in size, shape, and number, and rarely lead to cancer.

HPV-Related Cancers

Genital HPV types that are more likely to cause cancer are referred to as “high-risk” HPVs. Usually the immune system of a man or woman infected with low-risk or high-risk HPV gets rid of the infection and the virus does no harm. However, some people develop a persistent (lasting) infection that slowly, often over many years, causes changes to normal cells that lead to precancerous lesions or cancer.

Cancers associated with HPV include:

Cervical cancer. Essentially all cancers of the cervix are caused by HPV infection. Whether a woman who is infected with HPV will develop cervical cancer depends on a number of factors, including the type of HPV. Of the cervical cancers related to HPV, about 70% are caused by two strains, HPV-16 or HPV-18. In women who have HPV, smoking may increase the risk of cervical cancer. Although almost all cervical cancers are caused by HPV, it is important to remember that most genital HPV infections won’t cause cancer.

Oral cancer. HPV can cause oral cancer (cancer of the mouth and tongue) and oropharyngeal cancer (cancer of the oropharynx, the middle part of the throat located from the tonsils to the tip of the voice box) in men and women. These HPV-related cancers are increasing steadily in men. In fact, the HPV virus now causes as many cancers of the upper throat in men as tobacco and alcohol use, according to a recent study. Changes in sexual behavior, including an increase in oral sex, may be one reason for the rise.

Other cancers. HPV is also associated with less common cancers. Almost one-half of cancers of the vulva are associated with HPV. The types of HPV that cause cervical cancer are also related to anal cancer. High-risk HPV types are also associated with vaginal cancer and penile cancer.

Treatment

There is no cure for HPV. However, most HPV infections simply go away over time or are weakened to the point where they do not affect the body. An infection that is not active may become active when a person’s immune system is weakened by treatment for other diseases, such as cancer.

Health problems caused by HPV can be treated. Warts and precancerous lesions can be removed through cryotherapy (freezing); loop electrosurgical excision procedure (LEEP), which uses electric current to remove abnormal tissue, or surgery. Topical medications (such as creams that are applied directly to the skin) can also be prescribed for genital warts. However, removing genital warts does not mean a person no longer has HPV. Warts may return later because the virus may still be living in cells. A person with HPV who does not have any visible warts can still infect a sexual partner with the virus.

Prevention Strategies

There are ways to reduce your risk of HPV infection, including receiving an HPV vaccine. Limiting your number of sex partners is another way to reduce your risk because having many partners increases the risk of HPV infection. Using a condom cannot fully protect you from HPV during sex.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved two vaccines that help prevent infection with HPV: Gardasil and Cervarix. Gardasil helps prevent infection from the two HPVs known to cause most cervical cancers and precancerous lesions in the cervix. The vaccine also prevents against the two low-risk HPVs known to cause 90% of genital warts. Gardasil is approved for the prevention of cervical, vaginal, vulvar in girls and women ages nine to 26. It is also approved to prevent anal cancer in women and men and genital warts in men and boys in the same age range. Meanwhile, Cervarix is approved for the prevention of cervical cancer in girls and women ages 10 to 25.

Because a vaccine can only prevent infection, not cure an existing one, it is important that it be given to people before they become sexually active. People who are already sexually active and who may already be infected with HPV should talk with their doctor. The vaccine may protect them from strains of HPV that they don’t have.

In addition to the vaccine, women should protect themselves by having Pap tests, the most common test to help detect cervical cancer. Pap tests can find precancerous cells that can be removed before they turn into cancer. Researchers have found that combining a Pap test with a test designed to detect HPV in women provides the most accurate results. A woman should talk with her doctor about having a Pap test and possibly an HPV test.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor

Learn more about HPV, including your risk of infection and ways to help prevent it, by asking your doctor the following questions:

  • What is my risk of getting HPV?
  • How can I reduce my risk of getting HPV?
  • Can I get genital HPV without having sex?
  • What are some of the signs and symptoms of HPV?
  • How soon after sex do HPV symptoms appear?
  • Should I be tested to see if I have HPV?
  • Should I receive the HPV vaccine? Why or why not?
  • Is the HPV vaccine safe? What are the side effects?
  • How is the vaccine given? Is more than one shot needed?
  • How long does the HPV vaccine last?
  • Does my health insurance cover the cost of the HPV vaccine?
  • I’m pregnant and have HPV. Can it harm my baby?

More Information

ASCO Expert Corner: HPV Vaccination for Cervical Cancer

Cervical Cancer

Head and Neck Cancer

Additional Resources

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Human Papillomavirus Infection

National Cancer Institute: Human Papillomaviruses and Cancer

Food and Drug Administration: Human Papillomavirus Infection Vaccines

Source: cancer.net