Gardasil Marketed to Older Women
Merck& Co. developed Gardasil a few years ago, the first vaccine to fight any form of cancer. This alone is quite remarkable. Cervical cancer is aggressive, deadly and often goes undetected. It is also overwhelmingly caused by a virus. Originally marketed to girls between the ages of 12 and 26, Gardasil is now being advertised and marketed to older women.
Gardasil is a vaccine used to protect against HPV, human papillomavirus, strains 16 and 18 which cause approximately 70 percent of all cases of cervical cancer. A recent study by the University of Alabama found that vaccinating older women could also significantly reduce the rates of cervical cancer. This study found that cervical cancer rates could be reduced up to 55 percent for a 45-year old woman.
HPV is transmitted through sexual contact and the original thinking was that women should get the vaccine prior to becoming sexually active.
The CDC recently released the statistic that one third of girls ages 13-17 have received the Gardasil vaccine.
Gardasil has received sharp criticism because of the issue of side effects. Click here to read more from WebMD on that issue.
Source: Dulcinia
