HPV and Homeland Security
O
n the surface, you wouldn’t think that the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV, the causative agent of venereal warts and cervical cancer) and US Homeland Security have much in common. However, they have more in common than you think as reported in yesterday's Pharmalot blog.
According to a report by the TheStreet.com , Homeland Security’s US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the first government agency to mandate that all female immigrants’ ages 11 to 26 years old be vaccinated against HPV. Because Gardasil is the only cervical cancer (HPV) vaccine that is approved for use in the US it will the vaccine used for the mandatory immunizations. Surprisingly, there is no HPV vaccination requirement for US visa holders or American citizens.
Since the policy was begun, an estimated 233,000 females aged 11 to 26 who entered the US as prospective citizens paid a combined $52 million or so for the vaccinations according to the Street.com article. Curiously, the USCIS is requiring only a single injection for females who receive the vaccine—the Gardasil label indicates that three injections are required for full anti-HPV effectiveness.
As you may recall, more than 20 states rejected plans backed by Merck to make Gardasil vaccination mandatory. Merck abandoned its campaign after parents and medical experts expressed concern about safety and effectiveness. While Gardasil vaccination is optional for American citizens, there is apparently no opt-out provision for females who simply want to immigrate to the US. The confusion may like lie in a document issued by the US State Department called form DS-3025, or “vaccination documentation worksheet which says vaccination against “Human Papillomavirus is required for US immigrant visa applicants.” Here is the form.
John Abramson, the former chairman of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices when the HPV requirement began in April 2007, and an opponent of mandatory vaccination said “This is not a disease that is communicable like SARS or pandemic flu or even measles.” “I am stunned. It was not the intention of the policy to mandate vaccination of immigrants,”
Ironically, Merck which has been pushing as hard as it can to promote Gardasil use isn’t aware of the Homeland Security policy, according to a Merck spokeswoman. It just goes to show how effective unregulated pharmaceutical lobbying can be!!!
Until next time…
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting
While mandated HPV vaccination may be attributed to effective marketing, as discussed in various articles I've seen, mandating HPV vaccination for immigrants is alleged by some to be a totally arbitrary and politically-inspired ploy, yet an additional block or complication for legal immigrants, put in place in the last days of a lame duck Republican administration. With the full vaccination regimen costing well over $200, there being no public health mandate for universal vaccination in this group and vaccine availability likely to be limited in many lesser-developed countries, mandatory vaccination was cited by critics as yet another effort to further weed out and complicate, delay or block immigration by lesser-affluent applicants and/or those from lesser-developed countries. Keep in mind that many of the same political appointees that critics cite as initiating and approving this policy likely agree with (or are) conservative Republicans and others who oppose mandatory HPV vaccination in the U.S., with HPV vaccination allegedly giving the message to adolescents/teens that premarital sex is OK (among other arguments/efforts related to to keeping adolescents ignorant and fearful of sex and its consequences).