A bill introduced Monday, Feb. 2, in the Nevada Senate would require preteens in the state to be vaccinated against meningitis and the human papillomavirus (HPV) before enrolling in private or public schools or daycare.
“If we vaccinate people, we can prevent diseases that are not only horrific but deadly,” said Joe Hardy, a Boulder City Republican senator who is chair of the Health and Human Services Committee and supports the bill, according to the Associated Press. “The vaccines that we use now have a purpose, and this is one of those that has a purpose and will protect people for a long, long time.”
HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that about 79 million Americans have HPV—about 360,000 will contract genital warts annually and more than 10,000 women will get cervical cancer.
Experts recommend administering the three-part vaccine throughout a six-month period for males and females at 11 or 12 years old before they become sexually active.
Nevada ranks below the national average in vaccinating against HPV, with about 27 percent of girls between 13 and 17 years old having completed all three parts of the vaccine, and 7 percent of boys.
“The important message is that HPV vaccine is cancer prevention,” said Heidi Parker, executive director of the nonprofit group Immunize Nevada, according to the news agency. “Studies have shown that it does not increase promiscuity.”
The state already requires that children receive vaccines for diphtheria, measles, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough.
But a mandate involving HPV, critics say, encourages promiscuity and that pharmaceutical companies behind the vaccine have pushed hard for the legislation, Associated Press reported. Mandatory HPV vaccines have only passed in the District of Columbia and Virginia.
In 2007, a similar mandate was made when Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered that young girls be vaccinated. Lawmakers ultimately overturned the measure, which faced strong backlash from critics and religious conservatives groups who cited Perry’s relationship with lobbyists from Merck & Co., a drugmaker that was the only company producing a vaccine at the time.
Mereck and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, which produces the HPV vaccine Cervarix, also donated about $10,000 to Democratic legislative candidates and the Democratic Searchlight Leadership Fund PAC in the last election cycle, Nevada campaign finance records indicate.
Despite these political ties, nonprofit groups like Immunize Nevada want more students to get the vaccine and say requiring it for school enrollment is a good way to reach the goal of immunizing 80 percent of Nevada teenagers against HPV by 2020.
(With reports from Associated Press)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(Las Vegas February 5-11, 2015 Sec. A pg.5)
