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Gardasil: to vaccinate your teenage daughter or not?
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Your teenage daughter is going to summer camp, starting a part-time job, or getting her driver’s license. Whatever the reason, she needs a physical exam. You take her to your doctor who says, “Let’s get started on the Gardasil shots.” What to do? Pictures of the beautiful, multi-ethnic, young women from the television commercials saying they are “one less” to get cervical cancer flash through your mind. Do you cave and allow your daughter to start the shots? Absolutely not!
Do not agree to have your daughter receive the Gardasil vaccination just because your sister allowed your niece, or your friends allowed their daughters. Do not allow yourself to be influenced or bullied by anyone in your doctor’s office. You need to take some time to make a well-informed decision about Gardasil.
First and foremost, learn all you can about the vaccine. Gardasil is given in three doses to young girls to help prevent the spread of the human papillomavirus (HPV), a common virus spread through sexual contact which can cause cervical cancer. The makers of the vaccine, Merck & Co., Inc., created the vaccine to give to young girls before their first sexual contact to protect them from the virus. Young girls have been receiving the vaccine since 2006.
For more information about the vaccine, check out the Gardasil website. Keep in mind that the website was most likely put together by Merck.
However, dig a bit deeper and learn about the flipside of Gardasil, the information you will not see on the Gardasil website. For instance, the vaccines are expensive and there is little research done on long-term effects. Merck does not know how long the immunity will last, some reports have stated only four years. Check out the fine print about allergies, especially if your daughter has an allergy to yeast. Gardasil also contains aluminum, which in some girls have caused reactions.
Speaking of reactions, over the last few months there have been an increasing amount of adverse reactions to the Gardasil vaccine. There have been reports of girls displaying “autistic-like behavior” after receiving their first shot. Some girls have developed symptoms of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. In February, 2009, Spain withdrew almost 80,000 doses of Gardasil after several girls were immediately hospitalized after their first dose.
My fear in all this is that it all comes down to money. Merck is trying to make a profit and therefore having the doctors push the vaccine on the parents. Many parents, in trying to be good parents, follow the advice of their doctor and are simply agreeing to have their daughters vaccinated with a drug that has not been thoroughly researched.
So parents, my advice, look at both sides of this equation thoroughly, your daughter’s health is too important to risk. When it comes to being an uneducated parent simply going along with your doctor on this Gardasil decision, it is your turn to be “one less.”
For more info: For information about the Gardasil vaccine check out www.gardasil.com. For opposing views on Gardasil check out www.evilslutopia.com. *Since there has been an overwhelming amount of comments sent to author about Gardasil , a second article will follow soon. Thank you to everyone who wrote about their personal experiences.
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