Lindsay and Starkweather: Parents should be wary of cervical cancer vaccine

A letter to the editor  —  8/27/2007 10:39 am

Dear Editor: It is unfortunate that the Wisconsin State Journal's Aug. 8 editorial, "Educate parents about vaccine," failed to provide all the facts necessary to allow parents to make an informed decision on using the new Merck vaccine, Gardasil, for the human papillomavirus (HPV).

The editor urged the state to mandate girls as young as 9 years old to use a vaccine to prevent an infection that cannot be transmitted in the school setting. A similar mandate was attempted by Texas Gov. Rick Perry, but failed when the public rebuked his authority to do so.

Shouldn't the people of Wisconsin be fully informed of all the facts before allowing one official to mandate the use of any vaccine for a disease that is not easily transmissible?

A May 2007 report documented over 1,600 adverse reactions and included three deaths linked to Gardasil. Among those reactions, 371 were classified as serious, and of the 42 women who received the vaccine while pregnant, 18 experienced side effects including spontaneous abortion and fetal abnormalities.

Cervical cancer has declined by more than 74 percent in the U.S. since the 1950s and today accounts for fewer than 1 percent of all U.S. cancer deaths.

The cervical cancer/papilloma virus vaccine also may not bring about a significant decline in cervical cancer mortality rates in the U.S. because so many women undergo early detection of precancerous lesions and surgical hysterectomy.

A May 2007 editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine also raised questions about the vaccine 's effectiveness.

It has come to the point where individuals must self-educate when it comes to protecting our health and the health of our children. We must demand all the pertinent information, not just that which comes from the pharmaceutical companies or politicians who are lobbied by them.

Rosanne Lindsay, Fitchburg

Melinda Starkweather, Madison