Some advocates and experts, however, said they are concerned that there is insufficient evidence about how long the protection will last, whether serious side effects will emerge in the future, and whether the reduction in infections will necessarily translate into fewer cases of cancer.
“There are unanswered questions about the safety of HPV vaccines, but the larger question is the risks vs. the benefits. HPV vaccines are effective in the short-term but we don’t know if they are effective in the long-term,” said Diana Zuckerman of the National Research Center for Women & Families, a Washington-based advocacy group.
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Texas Gov. Rick Perry's decision to sign an executive order mandating girls in the state receive the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer drew criticism at the GOP debate Monday night.
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“All vaccines have risks. Usually the risks are small and it seems that the risks of HPV vaccine are small (but they do exist),” she wrote in an e-mail. “As long as the benefits are substantial the risks are worth taking, but it is not clear what the benefits of HPV vaccine are for children unless they are also protected as older teens and adults.”
The vaccines protect against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection. HPV causes genital warts and, in women, can lead to cervical cancer, which strikes about 10,000 American women a year and kills about 3,700.
After the FDA approved the vaccine in 2006 for girls as young as 9, medical authorities recommended that they receive it at age 11 or 12 to protect them before they became sexually active. Some critics worried that vaccinating children would send a subtle signal that their parents assumed they would become sexually active and that it would give youngsters a false sense of security.
Merck began an ambitious marketing campaign and lobbying push to persuade states to add the vaccine to the list of those required for children to attend school. But the company eventually abandoned the strategy in the face of an intense backlash from those who argued that the decision should be left to parents. Although many states considered such mandates, only Virginia and the District imposed one.
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