A health nurse should first give them a presentation without bias before making their decision privately. Why as another human being should we have the right to decide on someone else’s health and well-being? We are trying to teach youth to become contributing members of society at that adolescent age, so why can they not make their own informed decisions? The HPV vaccination is regarded as protecting girls from 4 main types of STD viruses. Although you may not think your daughter is sexually active, how many parents can truly say they know this. “Well they said they weren’t having sex!” They must really be telling you the truth then, because they said so! Pull that wool out of your eyes and listen up! This is the same teenager that said they were going over to Sue’s house to study and wound up passed out at a party with the catholic uniform still on and ended up on Girls Gone Wild! I am not saying all children are like this but the majority have lied at one point of their lives! I hate to be the one to tell you. Although the cost is estimated to within the 300 million dollar range, think of how many lives can be spared cervical cancer. Is there any price too high to prevent cancer? We in Canada believe in public health care that we all contribute to help each other. If you don’t want the vaccine then don’t get it, make it your daughter decision, after all it is her body. To those of you who say it will promote young women to be more sexually active, I have one question for you. Wouldn’t the introduction of any contraception, i.e. condoms promote an increase in sexual activity? Sure maybe they do, but the pro far outweigh the cons. The HPV viruses are microscopic and pass through tiny breaks in the skin; they do not necessarily have to be sexually transmitted. The HPV vaccine alone will not protect your teen. Education at home and in the classroom are needed together to help make young girls make the most informative decisions they can. According to Health Canada, "An estimated 70 to 80 percent of sexually active Canadians carry the virus at some time in their life. Most people don't know they have HPV because there are usually no symptoms"(Health Canada). Furthermore, Health Canada states that, "The vaccine protects against infection with two high risk types of HPV (16 and 18) and two low risk types (6 and 11). HPV types 16 and 18 cause approximately 70% of cervical cancers"(Health Canada).
Regular Pap (Papanicolaou) testing is a vital screening tool for cervical cancer because there is no accurate way to conclude in which people HPV infections will continue and lead to cancer.The HPV vaccine should be your teenagers decision and only hers. They have the right to make their own informed decisions. If they choose not to receive the vaccine that’s fine, but I better not here the parents complain about how the system failed their daughter with cervical cancer!
This is a link to youtube that shows how little people know about HPV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXwDkTOL_tA&mode=related&search=
This is another link to a video that I believe should be shown in classrooms for girls to make the decision whether to receive the vaccine or not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fX-f-bAPOs&mode=related&search=
Graph Showing cervical cancer mortality rates for each province:
Graph proving that since the introduction of HPV vaccines, HPV has been rapidly decreasing.
References:
Health Canada
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/iyh-vsv/diseases-maladies/hpv-vph_e.html
Graphs from: Public Health Agency of Canada http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/updates/cervix-98_e.html
Videos from www.youtube.com
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