Sunday, November 25, 2012

Health Communication Professional Describes HPV Vaccine and it’s Controversy



What is the HPV Vaccine?

Who is the target for this vaccine?

Female Awareness of this Vaccine

The controversy of the vaccine: Causing Promiscuity?

Overcoming this Debate

Outline of my story:

I will first give a background of the HPV vaccine, who its target is, what it protects against, and the advantages and benefits of getting your kids vaccinated.  This is important because before going into the controversy of the vaccine, it is important to inform people about what the vaccine actually is and what it protects against, since not everyone may be familiar with it.  I will add a video of the person I am interviewing, Kelly Madden, to give a little more background on the vaccine and to discuss the research she does with the vaccine.  I will then talk about female awareness of the vaccine and how much they know about it and its risks.  I will then talk about the controversy associated with giving this vaccine, and how some researchers and health professionals believe it is starting to cause teens to be more promiscuous, since they are being protected against 4 of the most common strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer.  Many believe that this causes teens to become more sexually active because they are protected. I will then add a video clip of the person I am interviewing, Kelly Madden, a health communication professional to communicate her stance on the debate.  I will also propose to her articles that talk about this debate and ask her to comment on them.  After this, I will talk about overcoming this debate, any evidence to support the claim and the two sides there are to the debate.  I will sum everything up by asking viewers if they believe the benefits of the vaccine to outweigh the risks, and given all of my information on the controversy of the vaccine, would they choose to have their kids vaccinated or not?

Health Communication Professional Describes HPV Vaccine and it’s Controversy




What is the HPV Vaccine?

Who is the target for this vaccine?

Female Awareness of this Vaccine

The controversy of the vaccine: Causing Promiscuity?

Overcoming this Debate

Outline of my story:

I will first give a background of the HPV vaccine, who its target is, what it protects against, and the advantages and benefits of getting your kids vaccinated.  This is important because before going into the controversy of the vaccine, it is important to inform people about what the vaccine actually is and what it protects against, since not everyone may be familiar with it.  I will add a video of the person I am interviewing, Kelly Madden, to give a little more background on the vaccine and to discuss the research she does with the vaccine.  I will then talk about female awareness of the vaccine and how much they know about it and its risks.  I will then talk about the controversy associated with giving this vaccine, and how some researchers and health professionals believe it is starting to cause teens to be more promiscuous, since they are being protected against 4 of the most common strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer.  Many believe that this causes teens to become more sexually active because they are protected. I will then add a video clip of the person I am interviewing, Kelly Madden, a health communication professional to communicate her stance on the debate.  I will also propose to her articles that talk about this debate and ask her to comment on them.  After this, I will talk about overcoming this debate, any evidence to support the claim and the two sides there are to the debate.  I will sum everything up by asking viewers if they believe the benefits of the vaccine to outweigh the risks, and given all of my information on the controversy of the vaccine, would they choose to have their kids vaccinated or not?    


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Health Professional Says the HPV Controversy that Linked the Vaccine to Increased Promiscuity is Not True



What is the HPV Vaccine?  
The HPV vaccine is a vaccine given to protect women against cervical cancer and HPV related diseases.  This vaccine protects against 4 of the most common strains of HPV known to lead to cervical cancer.  Cevarix and Gardasil are two vaccines that are on the market currently, and both provide the same benefits.  It is important to be aware that this vaccine does not treat any diseases related to HPV or cervical cancer, it simply protects against the most common strains of the HPV disease, most of which are high-risk.  HPV types 16 and 18 are known as high-risk, and have been found to account for almost half of all vaginal, vulvar, and penile cancers.  A lot of research is currently being done on this vaccine, and Kelly Madden, a Graduate Student at UMD and Health Communication Professional is currently researching this vaccine and the health messages associated with it.  She is involved in doing content analyses on websites, blogs, and YouTube videos to see how the vaccine is being portrayed.  Madden says that these contain messages such as how HPV is linked to cervical cancer, barriers that people are experiencing as to why they are not getting vaccinated, and how susceptible people are to contracting HPV through sex.  

  
The target population of the vaccine is girls ages 11 to 12
This vaccine is advised to be given to girls starting at ages 11 to 12, before they become sexually active.  It is important to get this vaccine early, which is why it is so controversial.  Madden made it clear that most of the controversy deals with the parents and their decision to get their child vaccinated or not.  Parents see this as an easy way to give the wrong idea to their children that it is acceptable to start having sex at such a young age, and in turn cause them to be more promiscuous.  In fact, Madden says that teens are actually delaying sex, and it has been shown that girls who obtain the vaccine in their early teen and pre-teen phase are more likely to engage in safe sex practices. This is because they are more aware of the effects of having unsafe sex and all of the possible STI’s and diseases that exist.  


The HPV vaccine has been proven not to cause increased promiscuity among teens
Despite the concern of most parents who are struggling with the decision to get their child vaccinated or not, research has shown that this vaccine does not cause girls to be more sexually active.  In a new study done described by CBS News, “at least 90 percent of vaccinated and unvaccinated girls did not seek pregnancy tests, chlamydia tests or birth control counseling, markers that were considered surrogates for sexual activity during up to three years of follow-up.” Thus, it is clear that there is no correlation with getting the vaccine and practices related to sex.  Another aspect of this controversial vaccine is the debate on whether or not it should be mandated.  Madden says some states are trying to mandate the vaccine to be able to attend school, but parents express the concern that this makes no sense.  HPV is a disease that is contracted only through sex, which separates it from other diseases that are vaccinated against for school.  Overall, it is clear that teens are not becoming more promiscuous as a result of this vaccine.  The following video shows a clip of Madden talking about her view on the HPV controversy and how it does not in fact cause teens to be more promiscuous.

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,115,0" width="425" height="319" id="qikPlayer" align="middle"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="movie" value="http://qik.com/swfs/qikPlayer5.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#333333" /><param name="FlashVars" value="streamID=245a38db87d3435d890c203c3784e626&amp;autoplay=false" /><embed src="http://qik.com/swfs/qikPlayer5.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#333333" width="425" height="319" name="qikPlayer" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" FlashVars="streamID=245a38db87d3435d890c203c3784e626&amp;autoplay=false"></embed></object>

Awareness about the vaccine and cervical cancer need to increase
According to a study by Tiro et al., "Among the 40% of women who had ever heard about HPV, <50% knew it caused cervical cancer; knowledge that HPV was sexually transmitted and caused abnormal Pap tests was higher (64% and 79%, respectively)." It is clear that young women's awareness about HPV is very low, so increasing awareness about this topic would help better the health of our youth.  Madden made it clear that this starts with informing doctors about the vaccine and why it is important to tell your patients about the risks of the disease and why the vaccine should be given.  She said that it was found in the messages she studied that a lot of them showed how HPV is linked to cervical cancer.  It is important to make this connection in health messages so that people understand how risky the disease is, and why they should receive the vaccine.  


The following audio clip shows Larissa's thoughts on the HPV debate.

Do you think getting vaccinated for HPV at an early age causes women to be promiscuous?

listen to ‘Hpv vaccine 1’ on Audioboo



Thursday, November 8, 2012