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posted by martyb on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:05PM   Printer-friendly
from the taking-a-stab-at-cancer dept.

HPV vaccine for boys 'will prevent thousands of cancers'

[UK] health officials say the HPV vaccine for 12 to 13-year-old boys, starting after the summer, will prevent 29,000 cancers in UK men in the next 40 years. The boys will be eligible from the start of the new school year, 11 years after girls were first vaccinated.

The jab protects against human papilloma virus, which causes many oral, throat and anal cancers.

[...] Why are boys now getting the jab? Because the programme to vaccinate teenage girls, and reduce cervical cancers, has proved very successful.

There has been a reduction in HPV infections, genital warts and pre-cancerous growths in teenage girls and young women since the vaccine was introduced. Other groups, like teenage boys, have seen benefits too because the virus is not being passed on to them. To protect boys even more, and reduce cancers of the anus, penis and head and neck in the future, health experts say they should be offered the HPV vaccine too.

Also at The Guardian and The Telegraph.


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  • (Score: -1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:13PM (26 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:13PM (#865501)

    i'd rather have a DIY home kit for screening. you can have it on the blockchain and only release +/- details to prospective partners. no need to shoot people up with your untrustworthy shit.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:23PM (12 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:23PM (#865510)

    Take your anti-vaxxer crap and shove it directly up your ass. Christ. People like you are SCUM, you SUCK, you have no idea what you're talking about, FUCK OFF FOREVER AND PLEASE, PLEASE DIE!

    I mean it! Please DIE, so others won't.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:38PM (7 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:38PM (#865518)

      with proper screening people could avoid getting sick, but you don't really care about public health this is really about forced collectivism and you won't be satisfied unless others are treated like cattle. good luck with that. I'll take no mercy on you when the time comes.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by MostCynical on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:56PM

        by MostCynical (2589) on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:56PM (#865521) Journal

        What? "Screening" to find those who are already sick, rather than preventing them from getting sick in the first place?

        --
        "I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
      • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @11:10PM (4 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @11:10PM (#865549)

        with proper screening people could avoid getting sick, but you don't really care about public health this is really about forced collectivism and you won't be satisfied unless others are treated like cattle. good luck with that. I'll take no mercy on you when the time comes.

        You wouldn't happen to be one of those right-wing "Christian" survivalist types, would you? Just asking.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:09PM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:09PM (#865878)

          i'm not a christian nor belong to any other major religion. i'm on the dark side of the political spectrum where anarchists and libertarians crash into each other. not sure exactly where. still trying to learn about it all. i'm just not going to tolerate the government/corps deciding what can be forced inside of people/extracted from the inside of people. if you can't maintain sovereignty over the inside of your own body you are chattle. never mind that there is not open, third party testing and certification of manufacturing, etc. no real accountability and fair compensation. no, the USDA and the vaccine court do not count. and before someone assumes: no, i don't think the gov should be telling women what to do with their fetuses, nor do i think they should be able to steal from people to fund one choice over the other either. if you have a compromised immune system that is your fucking problem. stay your ass in the house. i'm not responsible for nature and viruses, ffs. acting like these drug dealers have it all figured out is hilarious if this cult wasn't so dangerous.

          • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @07:34AM (1 child)

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @07:34AM (#866149)

            But you see, you're the problem!

            Why?

            Well, there is no problem with vaccinations OVERALL. However, in the past, there have been issues with individual ones.

            For example the vaccine for Japanese Encephalitis? The first variant produced, we made by infecting mice's brains -- and then harvesting the anti-bodies. Unfortunately, this was problematic for some. I believe two or three died from the vaccine, but it STILL SAVED MORE THAN IT KILLED. Then, a new vaccine was created, using modern techniques, and it is far, far safer.

            So your foolish behaviour is causing problems if people want to report REAL ISSUES with vaccines. Again, I stress, vaccines are FAR FAR FAR safer than the alternative. But thanks to you, and others like you, people with REAL issues will be mocked, disbelieved.

            And because your 'movement' keeps acting selfishly, not vaccinating kids against diseases that can kill them, we may see legislation forcing kids to be vaccinated to attend school. Meaning all your actions are doing is REMOVING CHOICE.

            Asshat!

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @06:35PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @06:35PM (#866349)

              Actually, all fifty states already have legislation requires certain vaccinations in order to attend school. What we are now seeing is that the grounds for exemptions from that law are being removed.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @06:40PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @06:40PM (#866353)

            Cool. Here's what you can do then: Buy an insurance policy for at least $5,000,000 of coverage that says that all caregivers and any person who is infected in your community will be paid for your direct fault in not choosing to protect the community by becoming vaccinated, whether you were the actual disease carrier or not, plus an open ended commitment that you will personally apologize and have to look in the eyes the family of any person who loses their life because of your selfishness. Or demonstrate that you have the resources to pay such a debt personally.

            I think that's fair.

      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday July 10 2019, @11:53PM

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Wednesday July 10 2019, @11:53PM (#865568)

        Quite right A/C, this is exactly like that time the Bolsheviks nationalised all the farms in the USSR.

        Exactly the same, and I am sure the local NKVD will come for anyone who disagrees, because as we all know, there are only two ways of doing anything, the rugged individualistic libertarian way, or straight up communism.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @12:27AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @12:27AM (#865581)

      Vax, vax, vax. And the Big Pharma are rolling into the bank at the dumbness of idiots and the NHS. Only vax what is needed. This is drumming up millions if not billions in business out of thin air. Big Pharma are there to benefit the shareholders, NOT to help sick people. Hello, get THAT firmly in your head before you spew your millenialism all over us.

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by nitehawk214 on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:41AM (1 child)

        by nitehawk214 (1304) on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:41AM (#865680)

        I enjoy that alex-jones libertarians and hippie social media moms have found something to agree on.

        I don't enjoy that both groups of loonies are a danger to public health.

        --
        "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @10:18AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @10:18AM (#865758)

          I enjoy that alex-jones libertarians and hippie social media moms have found something to agree on.

          Funny old world, isn't it?

          I don't enjoy that both groups of loonies are a danger to public health.

          Fine and well, though I have yet to see any mention of the drug companies acting 'pro bono publico' here in any way other than manufacturing the vaccine, It's one thing to recoup your R&D costs, but I think they'll be making quite a nice profit out of this.

          If there was a system in place where the drug companies had zero influence on health and political decisions regarding public health policy, if their lobbyists didn't exist, if the revolving door betwixt these companies and politics, health departments, etc. didn't exist, then I think the two groups you mention above might be a wee bit happier, not totally, but a wee bit.

          I've a lot to thank the NHS for and I'm in no way against these vaccinations per se, especially given their stated efficacy, however, thanks to concerns about the undue influence of, as you USians call it, 'Big Pharma', that doesn't mean I've completely unqualified trust in the stated reasoning behind these attempts at making it another mandatory vaccination.

          People, especially those outside the UK, seem to view the NHS as some sort of monolithic 'socialist' entity, they apparently don't know the extent of the increasing lucrative (for their shareholders) involvement of 'private healthcare' contractors in the running of it (thank you, Tony Fucking Blair..), so, not liking where I see this all going, on a bad day you could count me in with your loonies (not every day, mark you, just the bad days when I see the shit my sister - who has a long term degenerative illness - has to put up with when dealing with the NHS and knowing that it wasn't this way even less than a decade ago)

          [Disclosure: Back in the 70's I was, as a child, an unwitting guinea pig for the trials of an anti-asthma drug by my then family Doctor (wearing his drug company consultant hat)...my parents, being of the generation who treated Doctors as 'gods amongst men' never questioned the various pills I'd been given and what they were doing to me, we only found out what had been going on when we changed family Doctor and he went through my records, and was not happy with what he saw, so forgive me if I question their stated motives on occasion]
           

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @08:03PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @08:03PM (#865943)

      so vaccines don't work then? who is going to die if everyone is vaccinated?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 10 2019, @09:24PM (#865512)

    2019: "Da blockchain more relible then vaxine."

  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:48AM (10 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:48AM (#865605)

    you can have it on the blockchain and only release +/- details to prospective partners

    That's not how blockchain works, not at all.

    no need to shoot people up with your untrustworthy shit

    So, normally I'm on the conservative (some would say anti-vax) side of new drug rollout, and the way the HPV vaccine was rolled out in Texas was corrupt, criminal, completely ignorant of safety protocols and contemptuous of the public health. However, now 13 years later, it seems that the risk has been proven not too bad, so a wider rollout is probably in order.

    Looking at some basic UK stats:

    TP: total population: ~67 million
    LE: average life expectancy: ~81 years
    PPY: TP/LE average population per year: ~827160 (yes, this could be nuanced a bit more)
    CCC: cervical cancer diagnoses per year: ~3200
    CCD: cervical cancer deaths per year: ~850
    PPY/CCC: 1/258 people will, on average, be diagnosed with cervical cancer - at the current rates
    PPY/CCD: 1/973 people (1/486 women) will, on average, die of cervical cancer

    So, at current rates, if your secondary school happened to have about 486 girls in it, by the odds, one of them will be dying of cervical cancer. And, given the apparent success rate of the vaccine, if you were to vaccinate all 973 students in the school, you'd be saving that one woman from an early demise from cervical cancer, allowing her to live many more decades and eventually pass on, most likely from heart disease or another cancer.

    And, as the article points out, even if it's not fatal, who wants oral or anal cancer? Even non-cancerous growths like warts, schwannoma, benign tumors, etc. can be traced to HPV as a strong risk factor.

    On the other hand... the vaccine has only been "in the wild" for about 13 years now, do we really know what its risk factors are? IMO, it should still be a matter of personal choice - encouraged, but not mandated, much like alcohol and tobacco education campaigns.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by stormreaver on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:59AM (8 children)

      by stormreaver (5101) on Thursday July 11 2019, @01:59AM (#865610)

      IMO, it should still be a matter of personal choice

      It should always be a matter of personal choice.

      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:15AM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday July 11 2019, @02:15AM (#865619)

        Always is a strong word. I'm in favor of mandatory TB screening for health workers, and vaccination for it in high risk areas. Airborne contagions in high risk / low immune populations are bad juju, if you don't like the jab, get a different job.

        Ummmm... Polio vaccination is a good idea, after a lot of not so great early prototypes they've got the risk factors on that one down pretty good. And tetanus... ugly way to die, easy to pick up in the environment, and damn expensive compared to vaccination. But, sure, if your philosophy believes that risk of natural disease is preferable to risk of unintended side effects from medicine, regardless of what the statistics say, I agree - that should be a right.

        Now, if you get diagnosed with something like the measles, you should also be quarantined - whether you were vaccinated for it or not - until you are no longer contagious. Typhoid Mary was a criminal and sociopath of the highest order.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:08PM (6 children)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday July 11 2019, @06:08PM (#865875) Journal

        It should always be a matter of personal choice.

        You can choose to not get vaccinated.
        And the rest of us can choose to not allow you to expose our children to your disease vectors by sending them to public schools.

        Choices all around!

        • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Thursday July 11 2019, @07:38PM (5 children)

          by stormreaver (5101) on Thursday July 11 2019, @07:38PM (#865929)

          And the rest of us can choose to not allow you to expose our children to your disease vectors...

          But your children are vaccinated, right? So what are you worried about?

          • (Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday July 11 2019, @07:57PM (4 children)

            by DeathMonkey (1380) on Thursday July 11 2019, @07:57PM (#865937) Journal

            But your children are vaccinated, right? So what are you worried about?

            The ignorance displayed in this rebuttal, mostly.

            • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Thursday July 11 2019, @11:44PM (3 children)

              by stormreaver (5101) on Thursday July 11 2019, @11:44PM (#866025)

              The ignorance displayed in this rebuttal, mostly.

              Such as...?

              • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @01:21AM (2 children)

                by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @01:21AM (#866056)

                that vaccines aren't perfect miracle preventions for 100% of those vaccinated, or even available for 100% of those wanting to be vaccinated, for starters.

                It seems you've been hiding under a rock for a long time now. Please review the articles about the measles outbreak in New York and the herd immunity issues going on in California and enlighten yourself at least a _little_ bit before you post further.

                • (Score: 2) by stormreaver on Friday July 12 2019, @11:19AM (1 child)

                  by stormreaver (5101) on Friday July 12 2019, @11:19AM (#866189)

                  It seems you've been hiding under a rock for a long time now.

                  Quite the contrary. I was just like you until I actually started researching vaccines. Perhaps you should stop regurgitating pharmaceutical news releases, and do some actual research of your own.

                  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @06:45PM

                    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 12 2019, @06:45PM (#866355)

                    Wow! You conducted field trials yourself! You must be rich to do all that....

                    Oh, you just meant that you read what some other people said. People who have done no actual research themselves but just combed through data of others and put their spin on it. I see.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:31PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @04:31PM (#865847)

      On the other hand... the vaccine has only been "in the wild" for about 13 years now, do we really know what its risk factors are? IMO, it should still be a matter of personal choice - encouraged, but not mandated, much like alcohol and tobacco education campaigns.

      I seem to recall seeing somewhere that when a new drug hits the market around 90% of adverse side effects are identified within 5 years of that drug going on the market; I'm not going to try to (re)locate that bit of info, but if anyone who has better and/or refuting info wants to chime in, please do. If there are any adverse effects, it would seem that 13 years is more than adequate to identify the most serious/obvious of those adverse side effects. I will also note that the story indicates that vaccinating girls has been a resounding success; the only missing part appears to be vaccinating the boys.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @08:15PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 11 2019, @08:15PM (#865949)

    Yeah well reality says that's a long way off so go keep your knobby wart dick in your pants and your diseased children locked in the basement fucko.