The Efficacy of Cervarix Vaccine - Term Paper Example

The vaccine Gardasil has been now scientifically established to safeguard against certain strains of HPV which are the most dominant risk factor in Cervical Cancer. As per statistics of Federal Health Authorities, every year 11150 new cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in US alone. Over 70% of these cases are directly related to the strains of HPV which are targets of the Gardasil vaccine. Does all these statistics justify raising the status of Gardasil from a vaccine to a holy grail which can become the bastion of defence against this disease Difficult to ascertain on face value indeed, however merit detail attention. Though the scientific claims are not doubtable due to the empirical evidence available, the campaign that its administration to all the youth compulsory is possibly flawed if not all together wrong. It can be argued that the matter should not be rushed and more time and debate be done before taking this important decision which has long term financial applications as well. The Gardasil debate has created another chapter in the book of virus controversies. In an effort to establish the monopoly over vaccination against this very potent threat to health of young girls and even boys, the Gardasil manufacturers have left no stone unturned in their efforts. However they still are unable to convince the independent sceptics with no vested interests in money and profits in their argument to make its vaccination compulsory. Moreover the costs involved in vaccination all over the country may it be out of national health budget or financial resources of the families are tremendous. The hefty amount of 360 dollars per kid can be better spent elsewhere than vaccinating all the young with a vaccine which does not cover all the causes and will merely statistically reduce the danger. The first of the problems with the Gardasil is lobbying being done by Merck. After the Vioxx problems Merck's credibility has been greatly eroded after its media campaign behind Vioxx and trying to save face once it was established that Vioxx causes heart problems. Merck was looking for a way out of its financial worries and making the vaccine mandatory will definitely provide tremendous financial boost to Merck's Vioxx induced losses. Making Gardasil mandatory means simply big money. Phyllis Schlafly says that Merck is lobbying to get it mandatory for profiteering reasons. While it is not any wrongdoing as per law, it is evident that if Merck gets successful in its campaign, its coffers are going to stay filled for a very long time. The question therefore arises of ethics in health that "are business interests of Merck the dominant factor in this campaign or long term public health interests" Later seems likely because of the involvement of Texas governor Perry's chief of staff and the executive order by the governor for making the drug mandatory. Gardasil is potentially a goldmine worth significant investments like these. Though this lobbying does not prove by itself that Gardasil is not required at all, it raises few more questions to be pondered. We now take a look at whole concept of making vaccines mandatory. So far all the vaccines which have been made mandatory and are generally believed to be non controversial are Small pox, polio and measles. All of these vaccinations reduce life time risk to all the known strains of these viruses. Many other vaccines are available which though are highly effective against certain strains however do not work against all the strains are still not accepted as mandatory. Another argument which justifies in making a vaccine virulent is the contagiousness of the disease. Therefore making Gardasil mandatory will certainly seem like favouring for a particular pharmaceutical house rather than general health interests of the community. As discussed earlier the concept of mandatory vaccination rests on the assurance that it will significantly or completely reduce the risks associated with a particular disease. The polio vaccine is a prime example. The polio vaccination has dramatically reduced the polio cases in the world and it is likely that polio will soon be wiped off the earth. Will Gardasil do the same to Cervical Cancer Obviously no, it will reduce the risk of exposure to some strains. This will lead to statistical defence against the risk but will an individual act of sex will not be risk free and all protective measures will have to be taken. In this case the cost of 360$ per vaccination does not justify it much. Unprotected sex will still be a threat. Yes it can be argued that fewer cases of specific strains of HPV will come out, however the other strains might find healthy population and in a course of time fill up the void. Therefore all the arguments fall flat on the back once it is announced that it will reduce up to 75% infections. So statistically you have one fourth chances of getting this infection after getting the dosage. So combination of protective measures and vaccination will significantly reduce the exposure. Here it should be noted that protective measures alone will themselves stop the risks and vaccination will only work in tandem with them. Without them vaccination is useless, so as the money being spent on it. Therefore it does not reason well to make it mandatory only to divert a large sum of money into it. It may be necessary to vaccinate some portion of the population with specific threat of exposures like the sex workers and sexually active women who have multiple partners but definitely vaccination the whole young population is not required. Another important factor of vaccination is the psychological boost it provides to the recipient. Vaccination against polio means one is immune to it and therefore if there is any exposure, it will be negated. Therefore risks to exposure can be taken. However same is not true in case of Gardasil while the mentality may prevail no matter how much people are informed. It might be far fetched but it can be argued that it may be treated as a license by a significant part of population to engage in sexual activity without restraints and therefore the statistics may later change and the unvaccinated strains later on become the lead cause of cervical cancer. Furthermore it is interesting to see the links between HPV and Cervical cancer itself and Gardasil claim to vaccinate against cervical cancer. All the studies point out HPV as predominant risk factor and not a cause of cervical cancer. However Merck decided to introduce this vaccine as defence against cervical cancer and not the Sexually Transmittable HPV. Therefore there were more of advertising gimmicks than substance. This alone sheds light into the kind of media spin being woven behind Gardasil and definitely cast doubts into any logical mind There are more vaccines in pipeline for HPV which may promise to bring more long lasting defence. However there is indeed a rush to get the vaccine approved for administration. So far even the vaccine manufacturer claims, it will safeguard for minimum four years while longer term trials have not bore results. Comparing it again to the mandatory vaccines like polio we see that Gardasil fails on this longetivity account as well. The mandatory vaccines reduce the risk life time and therefore worth the investment. If later on it is proven that Gardasil reduces the risk for life, it may pass on this account but at present moment it is not the case. The media campaign behind Gardasil is in full swing. All the Merck sponsored sites including WebMD are advocating mandatory vaccination for young girls. The whole case rests on the belief that people will become irresponsible with sex and refuse to use protective measures. However if someone willingly and knowingly involves into unprotected sex, one is going to create a lot of community health problems and Gardasil will only be effective against a small part of that threats. Rather than promoting a costly vaccine for safeguarding those people who get involved in unprotected sex, laws should be made to use these protective measures as mandatory and avoidance of their use should be treated as a felony. This might lead to better statistical improvements across board than obtainable from Gardasil. As more research is required to justify the criteria which are employed to ensure that the necessity of vaccination of all young children, it is imperative that no decision be taken in haste which may cause un-necessary burden on the Health Budgets and does not divert the money from other necessary requirements to this hyped up vaccine. Government should wait for the long term results to arrive and than decide on merit after a thorough debate across various sections of society. It must be remembered that decision of making a vaccine mandatory is not a purely medical decision but it involves various other segments of the society. It negates the statue of free consent and it involves various other dimensions not visible to a medical professional. As evident from the arguments above that there are no doubts being raised on the efficacy of the vaccine but the way it is being projected as a holy grail against the Cervical Cancer prevention and the lobbying for making it mandatory for School going Children. The whole arguments for making it mandatory seem flawed for time being and health authorities all over the world must wait for more research on this vaccine and other vaccines like Cervarix for the same disease from competitor pharmaceutical companies. Works Cited "Cervical Cancer Vaccine Q&A." www.webMD.com. 13 Apr. 2007 . "Human Papillomaviruses and Cancer: Questions and Answers." www.cancer.gov. National Cancer Institute. 13 Apr. 2007 . "Key Statistics About Cervical Cancer." www.cancer.org. American Cancer Society. 13 Apr. 2007 . "The First Vaccine Against Cancer." Womensissues.About.Com. The New York Times Company. 13 Apr. 2007 . "Vaccine Controversy." En.Wikipedia.Org. 13 Apr. 2007 . Read More