Comments on: A pox in your trousers? Not if your Pal MD can help it.

By: Anti-cancer vaccine: too hawt 4 ur kidz? : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:53:33 +0000

[...] that many middle- and upper-class parents have (which Historiann has written about previously here), and what I think is more at issue with the HPV vaccine, namely, 2) fears that daughters may [...]

By: Back-to-school report: just the vax, m’am : Historiann : History and sexual politics, 1492 to the present

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:16:43 +0000

[...] post about some scandalously stupid reportage on a so-called “victim” of Gardasil. (Longtime readers will recall that support for inoculation/vaccination are just about the only thing that Historiann has in [...]

By: Historiann

Historiann — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 02:36:09 +0000

Anne–yes, vaccinating boys makes a great deal of sense. Maybe they’ll have time to do the testing before your children are old enough (at least your younger boy, anyway.) Thanks for visitng and commenting!

By: Anne Miller

Anne Miller — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:40:10 +0000

YES!!! Boys should get vaccinated!!!! HPV is responsible for the majority of oral and throat cancer in men that do not use tobacco. Plus I don’t want my son to possibly infect his partner and possibly the mother of my grandchildren.
I do not know if your Doc will want to give it to your son yet. My sons are 2 and 7 so we aren’t ready yet. My hubbie is a prosthodontist (a dental specialist), and he wants all his young male patients to get the vaccine.

By: PalMD

PalMD — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:43:16 +0000

Absolutely. It will not negate the need for screening, even if we ever achieve universal vaccination.

Very few diseases are eliminated…smallpox is still a pretty lonely success.

By: Heather Munro Prescott

Heather Munro Prescott — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:19:24 +0000

Over at PalMD someone made the observation that Gardasil prevents 70% of cervical cancer cases. Won’t there still be a need for routine pap smears to catch the other 30%?

By: PalMD

PalMD — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:10:47 +0000

As soon as studies prove safety and efficacy, Gardasil should be given to males. First, it is most often males who transmit HPV to females.
Second, HPV causes penile and anal cancers in men.

By: Heather Munro Prescott

Heather Munro Prescott — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:49:19 +0000

PalMD makes very good arguments about access to pap tests. How do we ensure that everyone who needs it has access to the vaccine? Should boys also be vaccinated to create herd immunity?

By: PalMD

PalMD — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:30:01 +0000

BTW, just to rant a little further, many who argue “rationally” against Gardasil claim (correctly) that pap smears have made huge strides in the fight against cervical ca. However, dissecting that idea, first, paps have to be available, women must seek them out regularly, and it is a cancer surveillance system rather than strict primary prevention.

So,let’s say you have an abnormal pap…great, now the follow up colposcopy, possibly surgery like a LEEP.

Why not circumvent all that and get the damned vaccine???

By: Historiann

Historiann — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:58:23 +0000

Thanks for coming over to play today, Heather! I think you would be interested to read about Pal MD’s perspective too over at WhiteCoat Underground.