human papilloma virus debate

Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine Debate

What is the human papilloma virus? HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer in woman in the United States. So, why wouldn’t we protect our young preteen girls against this disease? Most mother have a hard time fathoming the idea of their young daughter having sexual intercourse let alone protecting them from a sexually transmitted disease at the age of eleven or twelve when it is recommended. It is one of the hardest decisions a mother has to make when their daughter reaches a preteen. They stumble more over the idea of their young girls having sexual intercourse more than the medical aspects of the vaccine. In reality, according to The HPV Vaccine Controversy by Krishnan p. 151, thirteen percent of American teens will have their first sexual encounter by fifteen and seventy percent by the age of nineteen. Meanwhile parents are completely clueless when it comes to their children having sex and by the time the parent learns of them being sexual active it is too late to prevent them from sexually transmitted diseases. The human papilloma virus vaccine should be given to young girls at the age of eleven before the preteen can become sexually active for maximum protection against this infection. The Human Papilloma Virus is a sexually transmitted infection passed on from one person to the next through sexual intercourse. Doctors recommend parents to vaccinate young girls at the age of eleven to twelve to prevent girls from getting the infection when they do become sexually active. This is very important vaccine to get because HPV is a leading cause of many other diseases such as genital warts, warts on the hands, perilous cervical, vulval, vaginal, oral, penile and oral cancers (Krishnan, 200...

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...ne itself and need to be given before the first sexual encounter. There are always going to be risks with getting vaccines like all the rest but when the infection and the diseases the infection causes outweighs the risks of the vaccine shouldn’t parents consider vaccinating their children at this young age before they can be exposed to these dangerous diseases. Ten percent of children are infected with HPV by age fifteen and killing almost 4,000 women a year is this risk you would take with your child? Who wants to be the person to decide not to vaccinate their young daughter for HPV and later having her contract this preventable infection leading to cervical cancer from her sex partner and have to live with that guilt of knowing you could have vaccinated her as a young preteen and could have prevented her from getting this infectious disease in the first place?