Gardasil Poll Results

I apologize for not keeping up with my blog! Life has been crazy, but I will try harder to post :-) Thanks for being patient....so much going on too with healthcare at this point; it's a great time to be in the field!

Thank you all (8 of you--and you are the important 8!) for voting on my poll on what you think about the Gardasil vaccine. The majority of you feel that you would like to see more information on the risks, benefits, and outcomes of the vaccine before deciding on whether it should be part of the regular immunization schedule.

Some news: According to the CDC, the HPV vaccine was monitored in 5 clinical trials with over 21,000 girls aged 9-26. As of September 1, 2009 more than 26 million doses were distributed in the U.S. There have been 15,037 reports of adverse reactions following the vaccine with 93% considered non-serious (fainting, pain, swelling, headache, fever) and 7% considered serious (requiring hospitalization). Additionally, there have been 44 U.S. deaths after receiving the vaccine.

So what about boys? Well, as of October 16, 2009 the FDA approved the Gardasil vaccine for boys as well. At this point, the vaccine is not listed as a required vaccine for children in the U.S., but it could be in the future. It's worth keeping an eye on the insurance industry around this issue as the vaccine is very expensive and at this point, is not covered by insurance companies. This could mean some potential divides among the "haves" and the "have nots" if we don't subsidize the vaccine. In any case, it's interesting, and worth taking a second, third, and fourth look at!


Source: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/Vaccines/HPV/gardasil.html