So, when the Gardisil (HPV vaccine) came out, I thought –great! Some human papillomavirus (HPV) strains cause cervical cancer and now there is a vaccine….

 

Then, a few weeks ago, I attended a class to be trained and certified to give vaccines.  That is when I started to really look into HPV, the link to cervical cancer and the vaccine.

 

I became even more interested when I was on the health section of Yahoo Answers and found a ton (literally) of questions about HPV, genital warts, common warts and cervical cancer.

 

As we covered before in HPV and Genital Warts and Thwart the Wart, there are a lot of different strains of HPV (i.e. HPV-1, HPV-2, etc).  Some HPV strains cause common warts on feet, hands, etc.  Other HPV strains cause genital and anal warts.  Then other HPV strains have been linked to cervical cancer (these are called high risk strains).  The HPVs that cause genital/anal warts and cervical cancers are sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

 

Studies show that 99% of women with cervical cancer also have HPV.   However, not everyone with high risk HPV will get cervical cancer.  Most cases of HPV are cleared naturally by the body within 2 years. 

 

Sometimes HPV will stick around longer –for these women their risk for cervical cancer goes up.   However, they still may not get cervical cancer because high risk HPV plus some other things (which have not been figured out yet) together cause cervical cancer.   It is like an equation:  

high risk HPV + X + Y à cervical cancer. 

 

So, the idea is if we can vaccinate for high risk HPV –we can take the HPV out of the equation and hopefully decrease the risk of getting cervical cancer.

 

In the States we now have Gardisil –the HPV vaccine that covers:

1.     Two high risk HPV strains that are responsible for 70% of all cervical cancer cases and   

2.     Two HPV strains that cause 90% of genital wart cases.

 

The vaccine is relatively new –it was released in the States in 2006.  Currently it is approved girls and women 9 to 26 years old and is given at a 3 shot series (given at 0, 2 month and 6 months).

 

Because it is new, there are a few issues that are still being worked out.  The main question is how long it provides protection.  As of now, studies show that it will protect for at least 5 years…as time goes on, there may be a need to have a booster shot.

 

Common side effects include pain and swelling at injection site, headache, fever, fainting.  More serious side effects include seizures, Guillain-Barre syndrome, severe allergic reaction and 17 deaths (although they were ruled as not related).

 

So…does it work? 

Well, for now the studies show that it works very well to prevent genital warts and abnormal pap smears. 

 

However, it is not possible to see how well it protects against cervical cancer because cervical cancer usually takes at least 10 years to show up after being infected with high risk HPV and the studies have not been going on that long.  It is assumed that because it decreased abnormal pap smears that it will decrease cases of cervical cancer too.  

I know this stuff can be confusing so please contact at nova@getpharmacyadvice.com or leave a comment if you have questions or anything to add.

 

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