News-Letter

The Health and Wellness Center has inoculated more than 100 students with the controversial, newly approved vaccine Gardasil, which protects against most forms of the humanpapiloma virus (HPV), and plans to have the procedure covered under student health insurance next year.

"It's such a common virus. If you're sexually active, odds are you've contracted it," Alain Joffe, director of the Health and Wellness Center, said.

Joffe explained that, while the overwhelming majority of HPV infections clear themselves, "You never know if you'll be that small percentage of people that can't clear the infection."

Each year about 10,000 women contract cervical cancer and 3,700 die from it in the U.S. alone. It is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women.

"There has been a lot of interest [on campus]," Joffe said. "This is a life-saving vaccine; it's cancer prevention."

The vaccine is administered in a three-dose series over a course of six months. Each dose costs $145. The Health and Wellness Center has already given over 120 doses.

The Hopkins Student Health Insurance plan does not currently cover the cost of the vaccine, but it will be covered under student health insurance beginning next year.

"Girls are paying out of the pocket, but we have parents call and say they don't care what it costs, they want their daughters to have it," Joffe said.

Many girls have also chosen to go to

their family doctors to be vaccinated.

The human papillomavirus is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States. About 80 percent of all sexually active men and women are infected some point in their lives.

"Most infections are harmless, but a few go on to...develop cervical cancer," Keerti Shah, professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said via his website.

"Human papillomaviruses are responsible for 100 percent of cervical cancers worldwide," Shah said. Gardasil protects against four major types of HPV, two which cause about 70 percent of all cervical cancer and two which cause about 90 percent of genital warts.

The vaccine was recently mandated in Texas for schoolgirls ages 11 to 12, and other states are following suit. Maryland Sen. Delores G. Kelley sponsored a bill that would have required middle school aged girls to be vaccinated, but she chose to withdraw the legislation.

"It's a timing problem," she told the Baltimore Sun.

Controversy has surrounded attempts to mandate the vaccination, mostly by parents who are concerned that the vaccine could increase promiscuity in their daughters. Hopkins students fell on both sides of the issue.

"I believe it's a very good thing," sophomore Christina Renninger said. "When it becomes more mainstream and you can afford it, most people should get it. Sometimes it can help whether or not you're already having sex." Even so, Renninger does not believe that the vaccine should be mandated at this point.

Junior Suruchi Dewoolkar agreed. "I don't think it should be mandated ... [HPV] isn't that easily transmissible, it's not just person to person contact."

Joffe explained that the human papillomavirus is spread through genital secretions, but unlike other STDs, where you must have intercourse, theoretically HPV can be spread by fluid to skin - genital-digital contact.

Dewoolkar believes that getting this vaccine should be an individual or family decision at this point.

"It's necessary to get all information to the public so they can make their own decisions. For college girls, it's important for them to see what precautionary things can help them," she said.

The vaccine is recommended for women and girls between ages 11 and 26. Because HPV is spread by sexual contact, Gardasil is most effective if given before you're sexually active.

"The immune response is brisker in younger girls," Joffe said. The Health and Wellness Center will administer the vaccination to any woman under age 26.

Although extremely rare, HPV can also cause penal and anal cancer in males.

"In a year or two I suspect there will be an interest for males," Joffe said.

Although men cannot get cervical cancer, they can transmit HPV from one sexual partner to another. Researchers are also conducting tests to determine whether a vaccine for males would prevent transmission of the virus between multiple partners.

"But what if you plan to have sex with only one person for the rest of your life?" asks senior Bill Gartlin. "Is it worth paying almost $450 if neither of us has HPV?"

Junior Chris DiForte disagreed, asking, "Why would anyone not get it?"

Some students are unsure about the vaccine because it is not yet mainstream.

"It appears to be a safe vaccine although it's only been out six or seven months," Joffe said.

Gardasil does not appear to cause any serious side effects. Several mild problems that may occur are pain, itching or swelling at the injection site, or a mild fever. However, since most cases of cervical cancer are found in women in their forties, some students worry that the long-term effects of the vaccine are not certain enough.

The presence of HPV is generally detected by the pap smear, which tests for abnormal cells in the cervix.

"Think about the psychological discomfort caused by an abnormal pap smear," Joffe said. "Think of the testing you'd have to undergo if you had the high-risk virus. A lot of these procedures will go away with the vaccine."

Gardasil is a preventative vaccine, and will be most effective with women who have not been sexually active or infected by HPV.

"I would definitely suggest [college girls] get it," he added. "It's not very often we have vaccines that prevent cancer."

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