August 5, 2009 – 11:07 am
Be sure to get regular check-ups, including Pap tests. If you see genital skin changes, make an appointment with your health care provider for an exam. These feelings are normal. It is common for people with HPV to feel angry, upset, depressed or ashamed about their condition. Some women may also be concerned about the risk for cancer. Keep in mind that HPV can be managed and cervical cancer can almost always be prevented. Talk to your health care provider about your concerns. Keeping yourself healthy and not smoking can help boost you body’s natural defense system to fight the virus.
The Society of Gynecologic Oncologists (SGO) has published the first in a series of four papers on a variety of cervical cancer issues and topics that were the focus of its Forum “The Future Strategies for Cervical Cancer Prevention: What Do We Need to Do Now to Prepare,” held last September in Chicago, Illinois.
You can increase your chances of not having cervical cancer or precancerous changes in the future by protecting yourself against sexually transmitted infections, not smoking tobacco products, and by getting routine Pap smears. A Pap smear is only useful in detecting and preventing cervical cancer or precancerous changes if you return for follow-up evaluation and treatment appointments, when necessary. Keep in mind that it is very likely that the cause of your abnormal Pap smear can be easily treated, if treatment is necessary. In addition, the earlier abnormalities are treated, the easier they are to treat.
A study, published in Tuesday’s issue of The Lancet, said that as well as protecting against the two most common virus types, the GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Cervarix vaccine also provides protection against the next three most common cancer-causing virus types. GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s is Europe’s biggest drug company.
Free beauty treatments and free IPODS and other goodies in prize draws are being offered to young girls if they have the HPV vaccines. However, is it morally correct to coerce youngsters into conforming? At present the HPV vaccination programme is being questioned by many Governments as to it’s safety and some countries have even withdrawn from the programme altogether.
“What concerns us is that the two manufacturers of the vaccine aren’t always using facts. They claim that a lot of high-risk strains of cancer-causing virus are protected against but equally there are others that are not. If protection is not more than 20 per cent then that is an awful lot of money to be spending, particularly as the vaccines have quite serious side-effects.” — Professor Martina Doren, of the Charitie Hospital in Berlin:
All around the world concerns are mounting about the effectiveness and the safety of the HPV vaccines. Whilst many of our Governments refuse to listen to public concern and ignore the ever increasing numbers of children who have had adverse reactions to the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines, in Germany their concerns are at last being looked at and examined carefully. The Robert Koch Institute in Germany which makes recommendations on the public funding of vaccines, is reviewing its vaccination programme after 13 experts called for a reassessment of its HPV vaccination programme and an end to “misleading information” about the effectiveness of the HPV-vaccine.
According to the Canadian Women’s Health Network, most women who don’t smoke, eat well and have a healthy immune system will clear the virus without any treatment. And the Public Health Agency of Canada has said that more than 80 per cent of HPV infections acquired at an early age were gone within a year and a half. Even better, after a woman has fought off a strain, she has almost no chance of contracting it again.
Richard B.S. Roden, a researcher at Johns Hopkins who was trained at the National Cancer Institute, has spent a decade developing the new HPV-vaccine. He said it will protect against a wider range of HPV types than Gardasil and can be produced for perhaps less than $1 a dose.
HPV is one causal factor in the development of cervical cancer. Medical researchers note other factors contribute to cervical cancer, such as: Poverty— limited or no access to medical services; tobacco use; eating habits; weakened immune system; hormonal medications; exposure to Diethylstilberstrol (DES); Douching; and Chemical exposure in work environment.
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