SaneVax Discovers Vulnerable Girls in United States Targeted for HPV Vaccination

Oct. 7, 2010 - PRLog -- Under the guise of “protecting high-risk girls,” HPV vaccinations are being ‘offered’ to girls within the juvenile justice system. On the surface, this sounds like a laudable goal.

In the United States, informed consent for medical services is supposed to be a right we all enjoy. The SaneVax Team believes the advertising campaigns run by the manufacturers of HPV vaccines do little to promote the notion of informed consent, and ‘offering’ a vaccine to girls who probably believe their future within the juvenile justice system depends on their decision is not exactly the epitome of the concept of ‘informed consent.’

According to an article in Science Daily, “… most states that offer the HPV vaccine, the state or facility superintendent is authorized to consent for vaccination with the adolescent's agreement. Other states initially seek out or require some form of parental consent in order to administer the vaccine.” (visit http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100428110812.htm for details)

SaneVax wants to know how much any state or facility superintendent knows about each girl’s medical history. How can they possibly grant ‘informed’ consent for any individual girl, much less all of the girls who may be incarcerated within their facility?

Consider another excerpt from the same article, “To increase the uptake of the HPV vaccine in the juvenile justice system, the authors recommend all states make the vaccine available to juvenile offenders, offer the vaccine universally to both detained and incarcerated adolescents, and adopt more liberal vaccine consent protocols.”

Wait just a minute here, “To increase the uptake of the HPV vaccine?” What happened to ‘protecting high-risk’ girls?

39 states -- including Rhode Island -- currently offer the HPV vaccine to adolescents residing in juvenile justice facilities. Ten of these states only administer the vaccine to juvenile offenders who are incarcerated, but do not make it available to detainees due to their short length of stay.

According to the National Cancer Institute, “The finding of HPV viral DNA integrated in most cellular genomes of invasive cervical carcinomas supports epidemiologic data linking this agent to cervical cancer; however, direct causation has not been demonstrated.” (visit http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/prevention/cervica... for details)

Is this in the advertising?  No. Are the girls informed of this? Probably not.

The SaneVax Team wants to know if these girls are told that most HPV infections clear on their own without medical intervention. We want to know if these ‘high-risk’ girls are being told that the rate of cervical cancer in the United States is only 8.1/100,000?  We want to know if these girls are fully informed about the potential side effects of HPV vaccinations. We want to know whether these girls are offered the already proven safe and effective method of detecting pre-cancerous lesions, Pap smears.

More than anything, the SaneVax Team wants to know why ‘increasing the uptake of HPV vaccines’ is more important than these girl’s right to informed consent.

# # #

SaneVax believes only Safe, Affordable, Necessary & Effective vaccines and vaccination practices should be offered to the public. Our primary goal is to provide scientific information/resources for those concerned about vaccine safety, efficacy and need.