Is universal HPV vaccination necessary?

[ElizHart]

The co-inventor of the technology enabling the HPV vaccines, Ian Frazer, states:

“Through sexual activity, most of us will get infected with the genital papillomaviruses that can cause cancer.  Fortunately, most of us get rid of them between 12 months to five years later without even knowing we’ve had the infection.  Even if the infection persists, only a few individuals accumulate enough genetic mistakes in the virus-infected cell for these to acquire the properties of cancer cells”. (1)

So Ian Frazer has acknowledged that the risk of cancer is very low…  I find it astonishing that the HPV vaccine is being pushed upon adolescents around the world.  I wonder how many of these young people and their parents are being properly informed of Ian Frazer’s statement above?

For information, here’s a link to a letter I’ve forwarded to Chris Mitchell, Editor-in-Chief of The Australian newspaper, on this topic: “Is universal HPV vaccination necessary?”: http://users.on.net/~peter.hart/Is_universal_HPV_vaccination_necessary.pdf

As I note in my letter, I am unconvinced of the need for universal HPV vaccination and suspicious of the motives for its promotion.  

We need the quality media to step up to the plate and investigate this matter.

Ref. 1: “Catch cancer? No thanks, I’d rather have a shot!” published on the CSIRO and university funded website The Conversation (10 July 2012): https://theconversation.edu.au/catch-cancer-no-thanks-id-rather-have-a-shot-7568

[Chicharronita]

Originally Posted by ElizHart 

For information, here’s a link to a letter I’ve forwarded to Chris Mitchell, Editor-in-Chief of The Australian newspaper, on this topic: “Is universal HPV vaccination necessary?”: http://users.on.net/~peter.hart/Is_universal_HPV_vaccination_necessary.pdf

Great letter! Did you get any responses?

Quote:

Ten years ago, the vaccine market sat at $5.7 billion dollars…now, that market has soared to $27 billion."

For the first half of the financial year, Merck’s Gardasil HPV vaccine is the third best-selling vaccine with

sales of $608 million, and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix ranks at No. 8 with sales of $285 million.11

Bbbut it's not about profits! It's about being noble and saving lives.

You quoted from the FierceVaccines.com site. I'd never heard of this pharma industry insider website which publishes information on R&D, profits and new products. 

And check out the nice picture accompanying the article! A picture is truly worth a thousand words.

[ElizHart]

Hi Chicharronita - no, I didn't get a response...  

And, as you say, a picture is truly worth a thousand words!  It's all about the money...

[Ewan]

I read your article with interest and have a few points about universal vaccination which I would like to raise. I work for an organisation Throat Cancer Foundation - we are on Facebook and are launching our website very soon. We exist to support patients and carers suffering from cancers which affect the throat. We are non-profit and have no competing interests. We have undertaken a lot of research and taken a lot of advice from experts in areas related to HPV.

As you pointed out the risk of HPV to any individual is low but the vaccination programme is in place to establish "herd immunity" which in order to work requires that the population receives the vaccine. So, while the risk is low the best way to establish protection is to vaccinate everyone. We argue this must include boys too - simply because "herd immunity" can only work if you stay within the herd and the current UK vaccination policy excludes men who have sex with men, men who sleep with women who are not vaccinated eg too old to have been vaccinated or from a country where there is no vaccination programme or there is poor uptake of the vaccination. It is particularly pressing in the case of men who sleep with men as they have a disproportionate burden of HPV related cancers.

Furthermore, It is not exactly correct to state that there has been no proven reduction in cervical cancer , rather it is too soon to make any judgement on the efficacy or otherwise of the vaccine - as you point out HPV has a long gestation period which means any results will not be known for a long time. The cases of pre-cancerous lesions with the HPV virus cannot be disputed however, accounting as they do for 70% of cervical cancer cases and an ever increasing number of head and neck,penis and anal cancers. The leading doctors, pathologists, immunologists and cancer care specialists we have spoken to are in little doubt about the connection between the two. We have received very recent statistics on the rise of HPV positive cancers in the UK and the cases have risen dramatically in the last twenty years. I would be happy to send you some of our research.

Finally, HPV is not only the cause of cancer but of genital warts too. This is important from an economic point of view as the cost of treatment for genital warts in the UK alone is close to 50 million pounds per year. Even if HPV vaccination prevents only genital warts - the economic burden is dramatically decreased. Again I am happy to share that information with you if you would like.

We acknowledge that there are many issues around the pharmaceutical industry which need to be addressed but there has to be caution in going down the road of dismissing all developments as simply money making schemes- the more rabid aspects of the anti-vaccination lobby can have extremely damaging consequences mainly the failure to protect people from preventable disease. A case in point would be the numerous outbreaks of German measles due to the autism scare around MMR.

As I said I would be delighted to share our research and findings with you around this area.

[ProvenFactsPls]

Herd Immunity with regard to vaccination is a myth. Herd Immunity is a term that was coined in 1933 in relation to natural infection and has never been proved to exist with vaccination.

Who are the medical experts associated with your foundation and who are you funded by?

[Rrrrrachel]

There actually are several studies that demonstrate and measure herd immunity. It is not a myth.

[Chicharronita]

Originally Posted by Ewan 

We acknowledge that there are many issues around the pharmaceutical industry which need to be addressed but there has to be caution in going down the road of dismissing all developments as simply money making schemes- the more rabid aspects of the anti-vaccination lobby can have extremely damaging consequences mainly the failure to protect people from preventable disease. A case in point would be the numerous outbreaks of German measles due to the autism scare around MMR.
 

You may acknowledge that there are issues but until the pharmaceutical industry does, I and a growing number of people will be cautious about taking any of its products. 

[Ewan]

Hi, sorry I was not notified that there had been responses to my post. Allow me to address the questions you have now.

I am not willing to enter into a debate re herd immunity. If you do not believe it exists then I am not going to change your mind about that. I can answer your other questions though.

We are funded through donations and fundraising efforts of interested parties. This generally includes cancer survivors, their families and loved ones. The capital to start the charity was contributed by our founder who himself is an HPV positive Oropharyngeal survivor. As I said, we receive no funding from pharma or any similar organisation. 

Our clinical advisory team is large and expanding and comprises of leading UK based Head and Neck Cancer Specialists, for example : Professor Christopher Nutting, Professor Simon Rogers, Professor Hisham Mehanna. We also have support from HPV experts and researchers for example - Professor Margaret Stanley OBE (University of Cambridge). In addition we get advice and support from Cancer Care Nursing Specialists, for example - Dr Mary Wells (University of Dundee). This is not all of the people and professionals who help,advise or support our work but rather a select few.

Our team is growing all the time as the charity grows but I can tell that all the medics and HPV research people we have been in contact are very supportive of universal vaccination. More and more young people, particularly males are having to endure really debilitating and life altering treatments at a young age for head and neck cancer. We support vaccination as a pragmatic response to what is becoming a ever increasing problem. As I said earlier - vaccination also protects against genital warts which cost the NHS in the UK a huge amount of money each year.  

Hope this helps. 

[emmy526]

3. HPV-related cancers up despite vaccines

By Alison Bryant

Quote:

Cancers caused by human papillomavirus rose in the past decade, a fact that may irkHPV vaccine makers Merck ($MRK) and GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK).

- read the report
- get more from Bloomberg

 

[prosciencemum]

Huh. Some more quotes about HPV from the report you linked (actually a press release about the report)... I get a completely different message to what you got - am I missing something?

Quote:

incidence rates are increasing for HPV-associated oropharyngeal and anal cancers and [] vaccination coverage levels in the U.S. during 2008 and 2010 remained low among adolescent girls.

also

Quote:

vaccinating against HPV can prevent cervical cancer, but, tragically, far too many girls are growing into adulthood vulnerable to cervical cancer because they are not vaccinated.”

(from CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D.)

[ElizHart]

Ewan, I'm continuing my personal investigation of universal HPV vaccination for girls and boys.  I remain sceptical of the motives for this questionable vaccine campaign.

I've recorded my concerns about HPV vaccination on my website: "Over-vaccination - Challenging Big Pharma's lucrative over-vaccination of people and animals"

[ElizHart]

It was announced in The Australian today that "Australian boys have begun receiving a vaccine against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV), a world first in preventative health".

The Australian Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said: "I know that nobody likes getting needles, but getting this needle now, when you're young, will perhaps save your life in the future".  (My emphasis.) 

This is the type of hyperbole being using to sell this vaccine.

I'm also interested to investigate further this statement by the Minister: "Since the vaccination program began in 2007, the rate of HPV-infections has dropped." 

[ElizHart]

The Gardasil HPV vaccine was originally rejected by the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) in 2006.

An article by Matthew Stevens in The Australian at the time (November 2006), reports the PBAC rejected Gardasil because it was "too expensive and, just maybe, not what it was cracked up to be anyway".(1)  Apparently,Tony Abbott, then the Australian Federal Health Minister "took to the airwaves, passing on PBAC's concerns about the efficacy of Gardasil and even floating the bizarre idea that a misplaced confidence in the effectiveness of the vaccine might actually result in "an increase in cancer rates"."

According to Matthew Stevens very interesting report in The Australian, it took just 24 hours for the then Prime Minister, John Howard, to "put an end to the nonsense", delivering "sparkling prime ministerial endorsement to Gardasil along with a clear direction to Minister Abbott that the immunisation program should proceed. And pronto.”

So is this how important decisions on vaccination practice are made?  On the whim of a Prime Minister in pre-electioneering mode?  John Howard's wife had cervical cancer.(2)  Did this personal experience affect Howard's decision?  Was this appropriate considering the complexity of the issue?

What sort of lobbying took place to overturn the PBAC's original decision to reject Gardasil?

This decision to add HPV vaccination to the Australian vaccination program for both girls and boys will impact on millions of children around the world.

Getting a vaccine on the national schedule must be the 'golden goose' for vaccine manufacturers as this assures a mass market for their vaccine product. It also helps create a 'domino' effect as other countries follow suit and adopt the vaccine, creating a mass global market.

No wonder Ian Frazer was willing to forego royalties from developing countries(3) – how much profit will he reap from sales of the vaccine to governments in developed countries?

I suggest there should be an urgent independent investigation into the aggressive marketing of the Gardasil HPV vaccine.

Elizabeth Hart

http://over-vaccination.net/ - Challenging Big Pharma’s lucrative over-vaccination of people and animals

References:

1.     Howard rescues Gardasil from Abbott poison pill.  The Australian, November 11, 2006: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/howard-rescues-gardasil-from-abbott-poison-pill/story-e6frg9lx-1111112503504

2.     How the Rudds profited from Janette Howard’s cancer scare. Crikey, February 22, 2007: http://www.crikey.com.au/2007/02/22/how-the-rudds-profited-from-janette-howards-cancer-scare/

3.     “Ian Frazer as co-inventor of the technology enabling the HPV vaccine receives royalties from their sale in the developed world.” Catch Cancer? No thanks, I’d rather have a shot!. The Conversation, 10 July 2012: http://theconversation.edu.au/catch-cancer-no-thanks-id-rather-have-a-shot-7568