HPV Vaccines Gives False Security to Teenagers

HPV Vaccines Gives False Security to Teenagers

According to a U.S. study, girls who had been vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) weren't more likely to get other sexually transmitted infections or to become pregnant.

However, the statement is opposed to the ultimately goal of preventing cervical cancer and somehow worries on the part of some of  the girls who has acquired the vaccine since it encourage them to become more sexually active or engage in riskier sex than they otherwise would.

"Some parents have expressed it as a concern," said Saad Omer, an infectious diseases and vaccine researcher from Emory University in Atlanta who worked on the study, which was published in Pediatrics.

"Parents can be reassured at least based on the evidence that young girls who receive HPV vaccines did not show increased signs (of) clinical outcomes of sexual activity."

The controversial vaccine has already been recommended for 11- and 12-year-old girls in the United States since 2006 yet only about half of girls start the series of shots. One argument about having this vaccine is the false security it portrays to pre-teens when it comes to sex.

For the study purposes, Omer and his colleagues analyzed databases from Kaiser Permanente Georgia, a managed care organization covering the Atlanta area. Out of 1,398 girls who were 11 or 12 when they saw their doctors in 2006 and 2007, 493 got at least one dose of the HPV vaccine.

According to the primary visits that were recorded, there were 107 girls who were given pregnancy test through 2010, and 55 of them were positive of Chlamydia.

Girls who did or didn't get the HPV vaccine were equally likely to be tested for both. Two girls in each group got pregnant during the study. One girl who'd been vaccinated was diagnosed with Chlamydia, compared to three unvaccinated girls.

Posted by George Daniels on Saturday October 20 2012, 4:02 PM EST. Ref: Yahoo. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0