Mandatory Vaccination for HPV: A Potential Lifesaver

This month, February 2007, the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, passed down and executive gubernatorial order that eleven and twelve year old girls in the state of Texas must receive a vaccination for the human papilloma virus, also known as HPV. HPV is a virus that is transmitted through sexual activity. Studies have also shown that HPV can cause cervical cancer in women. There are different types of HPV, some that cause genital warts and some that cause cervical cancer. Twenty four million people in the United States have some form of HPV. HPV has not been seen to cause cancer in men, only women.

I feel that Governor Perry made vaccination for HPV mandatory was an essential step to protecting the health of the people of Texas. HPV is easily contracted and shows very few noticeable symptoms. Historically, mandatory vaccinations have been ordered because the particular virus has cause serious damage to public health and also because of how contagious or infectious the virus is. In 2002, 11,072 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer. On average, cervical cancer causes 4,600 deaths per year. In 1916, 9,000 people contracted the Polio virus. A mandatory vaccination was created for Polio to prevent a large scale epidemic from occurring and saving thousands of lives. The mandatory vaccination is an essential step to saving thousands of women’s lives from dying of cervical cancer.

The autonomy of the citizens was overlooked because vaccinations were in the best interest of the health and survival of the nation. I would hope that if a vaccination came out that prevented a cancer-causing virus in men’s bodies would be made mandatory.