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Don't rush your vaccines

The ethical debate about a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease has been premature, says Apoorva Mandavilli; we don't even know how well it works.

Here's a good lesson: before you start pushing for a controversial vaccine to be made compulsory, best wait for the research — and I mean all the research — to come up with results.

Read the column here.

Posted by Nicola Jones on May 17, 2007 03:03 PM |

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I've finally seen a critical comment on HPV vaccine. It's definitively a vaccine that has shown to be safe and efficacious during the first years within a group of female patients, but it'll take 10-20 more years to have the definitive answer to the most important question. Does HPV vaccine prevents cervical cancer?. In the meantime, healthcare workers should be cautious by not giving the public false expectations regarding the efficacy of this vaccine. I also believe that vaccine producers (Merck and GSK) and goverments should simultaneosuly promote an intense campaign on PAP smears and invest human and economic resources to improve coverage and quality of smears among population. If the vaccine is as efficacious and safe as described, producers have a social responsability, and should dramatically decrease the cost of the vaccine, and benefit millions of women all over the world that don´t even have access to healthcare.

Posted by: Diana Vilar-Compte | May 22, 2007 04:57 AM

I appreciate Apporva's very rational, balanced and timely write up on HPV vaccine.

Posted by: Robin Mukhopadhyaya | May 22, 2007 08:22 AM

I appreciate Apporva's very rational, balanced and timely write up on HPV vaccine.

Posted by: Sohbet | May 22, 2007 03:34 PM

Thank you, Ms. Mandavilli, for a very thoughtful and wise commentary. My question: If the vaccine does turn out to be safe and reasonably effective, why shouldn't men (and/or boys) be taking it? If girls and young women are required to take it, men and boys should also be required to do so. Men may not have any consequent ill effects from HPV that we know of, but we certainly transmit it. I would certainly feel a lot better about myself as a sexual partner if I had been vaccinated before I contracted HPV than I do now as a carrier.

Posted by: Richard KeslerWest | May 22, 2007 11:04 PM

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