Discuss the risks and benefits of the human papilloma virus vaccine - Essay Example

Gardasil, which is one of these drugs, is a tetravalent vaccine that was licensed in June 2006. The US Food and Drug Administration issued the license for this vaccine and its objective in doing so was to ensure that it would be administered to girls and women whose age was between nine to twenty – six years. This particular vaccine is being used in a few other nations. Another such vaccine is Cervarix, and these vaccines are expected to reduce the risk of HPV infection and other HPV – associated diseases, not only in the United States but also in other countries where cervical cancer prevention methods and Papanicolau or Pap smear – based investigative techniques are unavailable (Dempsey).

The HPV vaccine, Gardasil, which is to be administered only to females of age nine to twenty – six years, is the first vaccine used for preventing cervical cancer. This vaccine is capable of preventing infections from HPV types 6, 11, 16, and 18, which cause nearly eighty percent of cervical cancers. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP recommends Gardasil for females aged 9 to 26 years, before they engage in sexual activity and a three – dose vaccine is to be administered within a period of six months.

The Gardasil vaccine can be administered along with MCV 4, Tdap and Td (Campos-Outcalt, 2006). In order to magnify the prospective benefits of the HPV vaccine, all adolescent members of the population should be administered the vaccination. Prototypical studies reveal that vaccinating only females does not result in any appreciable decline in the prevention of HPV in women. Female vaccination on its own would not be helpful to a significant extent in eradicating infections caused by HPV among women, because restriction of the vaccine to females would render its effect to curb such infections less effective by twenty – five to forty percent.

This is a very significant