Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Gardasil vaccination for boys

I'm on the fence about this vaccine. I want to be informed but I don't always understand the various numbers thrown out. For instance, the CDC reports that "about 1% of sexually active adults in the U.S. have genital warts at any one time." Presumably, this includes men of ages outside the scope of the vaccination. (As an aside, are nine year old boys actually sexually active?) Merck, the makers of Gardasil, reports that "in boys and young men ages 9 to 26, Gardasil helps protect against 90% of genital warts cases." So, um, aren't we talking about a fairly insignificant number? The 2000 Profile of General Demographic Characteristics from the Census Bureau doesn't completely match up with the age categories but this would mean vaccinating approximately 90,000,000 boys and young men for genital warts. At a cost of $300 per person. That's a lot of money. When only 1% of sexually active males have genital warts.

1 comment:

Noir said...

I think it might have something to do with risks to women getting cancer in their lady parts. And because the pharmaceutical companies want to laugh all the way to the bank.