Gardasil

[TotallyOz]

I had a friend that was recently diagnosed with cancer of the throat. He was worried about HPV and I didn't really know much about that so I started to do some research and found there is a vaccine. From what I read it is mostly for women but men can get it as well. Has anyone gotten this? Know about it? Recommend it?

http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/1667_12736.shtml

[TampaYankee]

I had a friend that was recently diagnosed with cancer of the throat. He was worried about HPV and I didn't really know much about that so I started to do some research and found there is a vaccine. From what I read it is mostly for women but men can get it as well. Has anyone gotten this? Know about it? Recommend it?

http://www.aidsmeds.com/articles/1667_12736.shtml

I recall a recent news release about it being advocated for young male adults as a prophylactic for HPV. I found it a bit suprising but on second thought it seemed not illogical.

Before I would advocate that anyone take it I would want to know more about potential side effects. I remember some horrendous stories about side effect in young women some time after the drug got a big push through private and public institutions. That sort of quieted down after the intial torrent of stories. Not sure how much meat there was to that. It seemed like it disappeared from the radar as fast as it appeared. I got the nagging impression that no wanted to talk about it anymore, sorta like the eccentricy uncle who quietly squeezes out farts at the end of the table at Thankskgiving dinner. The stories were truly horrendous. If true it seemed to me like Russian Roulette. That's why I would want to know more.

[caeron]

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/oct/09102903.html

I thought you must be wrong, but after googling apparently one of the doctors who invented it thinks it is being oversold and may be more dangerous than the harm it prevents.

good numbers in the article above. 90% of HPV infections resolve themselves within 2 years. of the remaining 10% half lead to cervical cancer. So 5% of infections, 1 in 20 lead to cancer...

But, cervical cancer is one of the most treatable cancers with a death rate of 1.6 to 3.7 per 100,000 cases.

So your odds of getting cancer from an infection is 1 in 20. Assuming the worst case numbers above, your odds of dying from it are one in about 27,000, which means the odds of dying of cancer from an HPV infection is about 1 in 550,000.

I'm a big fan of vaccines, but even I'd pass on that at those odds. Particularly since in another 20 years when the infection you prevent today would turn into a a cancer, death rates should be much, much lower still. If we do no more than halve the mortality rate in 20 years, the odds would be less then 1 in a million for the vaccine.