Should boys have to take some form of Gardasil?!
Question: Should boys have to take some form of Gardasil.?
OK, I've been wondering about this for a while. Why do girls have to get the shot, while the boys still pass around the STD.? Is it because the fathers don't like it.? I think this is really unfair.Health Question & Answer
Answers:
This is actually a very good question. Although contrary to belief, cervical cancer is an STD. But during the trials it was only tested on females between the ages of 12-29 (or so). I have heard about further testing on older women and males in order for the vaccine to be given to both populations. Unfortunately they have to be tested in that age group for the FDA to approve it. Health Question & Answer
There's several factors in this. The main one is that boys don't get cervical cancer. They don't have cervixes. Since this is the main problem that HPV causes, the benefit for Gardasil is much lower for them, and amounts to immunity to most warts, which are largely cosmetic, and not passing the virus to women.
The other main thing is that Gardasil is very expensive. The vaccine has only been in mass production for a few years. The active component of the vaccine is grown in genetically modified yeast cells, which have been reprogrammed to produce the antigenic portions of HPV. While yeast are easier to grow than most eukaryotic cell cultures, they're still not exactly easy. The cell cultures are smallish (compared to bacteria), the nutritional requirements are more complicated, and this adds massively to the overhead. Recombinant biotech is not cheap in the slightest. Once the cell cultures are established and well underway, and the vaccine has been in production for a while we'll probably see the costs drop significantly.
But given the cost - assume that to vaccinate all the boys and the girls would cost twice as much as just the girls. Now if we vaccinate all the girls we see say a 70% drop in cervical cancer rates, and a much larger drop in gynecological problems. If we vaccinate both genders, we get an extra.. what.. few percent.? Does that make much sense, costwise when it's about $400 to vaccinate each person.?
Two things will change this. First they have to get approval for males. There's an enormous pressure in the UK and certain other areas to get this done. Approval studies are underway. Second, if the costs change. Either the vaccine price decreases (which it will), or the epidemiological evidence suggests that we get a greater large scale benefit from hitting both genders.Health Question & Answer
The other main thing is that Gardasil is very expensive. The vaccine has only been in mass production for a few years. The active component of the vaccine is grown in genetically modified yeast cells, which have been reprogrammed to produce the antigenic portions of HPV. While yeast are easier to grow than most eukaryotic cell cultures, they're still not exactly easy. The cell cultures are smallish (compared to bacteria), the nutritional requirements are more complicated, and this adds massively to the overhead. Recombinant biotech is not cheap in the slightest. Once the cell cultures are established and well underway, and the vaccine has been in production for a while we'll probably see the costs drop significantly.
But given the cost - assume that to vaccinate all the boys and the girls would cost twice as much as just the girls. Now if we vaccinate all the girls we see say a 70% drop in cervical cancer rates, and a much larger drop in gynecological problems. If we vaccinate both genders, we get an extra.. what.. few percent.? Does that make much sense, costwise when it's about $400 to vaccinate each person.?
Two things will change this. First they have to get approval for males. There's an enormous pressure in the UK and certain other areas to get this done. Approval studies are underway. Second, if the costs change. Either the vaccine price decreases (which it will), or the epidemiological evidence suggests that we get a greater large scale benefit from hitting both genders.Health Question & Answer
You can't insure yourself against a certainty. It's simply mathematically impossible.
Insurance works by spreading risk. Not everybody's house catches on fire. So the people whose house don't catch on fire can contribute money that is pooled and given to those unfortunate souls whose houses do catch on fire.
But if everybody's house caught on fire, you would just be giving money to yourself and getting out the same amount you paid in. For what possible reason would you want to pay an insurance company to give your own money back to you.?
If every single person got a Gardasil shot and that shot cost $50, insurance companies would have to raise their rates enough to both cover the shot and make some money for the effort of processing the claim and so on. So everyone's rates would go up, say, $55.
What sense would that make when you could just pay the $50 yourself and save $5.?
Insurance doesn't manufacture money, it just spreads it from the lucky to the unlucky, thereby making the unlucky a bit less unfortunate and allowing us all to worry a bit less about being unlucky.Health Question & Answer
Insurance works by spreading risk. Not everybody's house catches on fire. So the people whose house don't catch on fire can contribute money that is pooled and given to those unfortunate souls whose houses do catch on fire.
But if everybody's house caught on fire, you would just be giving money to yourself and getting out the same amount you paid in. For what possible reason would you want to pay an insurance company to give your own money back to you.?
If every single person got a Gardasil shot and that shot cost $50, insurance companies would have to raise their rates enough to both cover the shot and make some money for the effort of processing the claim and so on. So everyone's rates would go up, say, $55.
What sense would that make when you could just pay the $50 yourself and save $5.?
Insurance doesn't manufacture money, it just spreads it from the lucky to the unlucky, thereby making the unlucky a bit less unfortunate and allowing us all to worry a bit less about being unlucky.Health Question & Answer
I costs about $350 for a girl to get Gardasil.
Kind of expensive. I agree that guys should get it to, to stop the spread. Maybe once the cost comes down, then they will give it to guys.Health Question & Answer
Kind of expensive. I agree that guys should get it to, to stop the spread. Maybe once the cost comes down, then they will give it to guys.Health Question & Answer
because gardasil is to protect a girl from getting cervical cancer, boys/men do not have a cervix therefore they do not need the shot.Health Question & Answer
HAHAHA!! it's for cirvical cancer....
i dont think guys have a cervix. do you.? lol they have a weiner...no vagina. lol
~REDHealth Question & Answer
i dont think guys have a cervix. do you.? lol they have a weiner...no vagina. lol
~REDHealth Question & Answer