Government agencies continue to lay the responsibility of sexually transmitted disease on women. The Gardasial vaccination, which protects women from cervical cancer, has also been found beneficial for men in contracting genital worse. Rather than helping to reduce the prevalence of genital warts in men AND women, they argue against requiring men to have the vaccine by stating it is more “cost-effective” for only women to receive inoculation.To be completely honest, I am against the government mandating vaccines for diseases that do not appear to be a public pandemic. However, no gender should be forced by pharmaceutical companies, the government, etc. to carry the heavy load of sexual protection.

Here’s the article from the Wall Street Journal discussing the decision ( http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2009/10/21/routine-gardasil-vaccination-for-boys-not-recommended/):

It’s fine if parents want their sons to get Gardasil, Merck’s vaccine against HPV. But it shouldn’t be added to the list of routine vaccinations recommended for all boys, a CDC advisory panel said today.Gardasil is on the routine list for girls, because it protects against some of the strains of HPV that cause cervical cancer. For boys and young men, though, the vaccine has only been approved to protect against genital warts.

Because HPV is sexually transmitted, there is an argument that vaccinating boys would reduce the risk of unvaccinated girls getting HPV. But Gardasil is a three-shot series that costs about $390, and a CDC economist who addressed the panel said that expanding vaccination to more girls was more cost-effective than adding routine vaccination for boys, Dow Jones Newswires reports

So the committee gave Gardasil a “permissive” recommendation — meaning it’s ok to use in boys and young men who want it — but stopped short of saying everyone should get it.

The committee also recommended another vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix, for use in girls and women ages 10 to 25 to prevent cervical cancer. The FDA approved Cervarix for girls and women last week. Cervarix will cost about $385 for a three-dose series, according to the Associated Press.