The UK Department of Health is to authorize a nationwide vaccination for girls to protect from HPV (human papillomavirus), starting at the age of 9, according to an article in today's Scotland on Sunday.
They even talk about taking it one step further, although that's not agreed to yet...
Some scientists say the vaccine should also be given to males, regardless of individual risk factors. Dr. Bradley Monk, University of California at Irvine, said we need to move toward a paradigm where this is a universal vaccine. He says males can pass the infection on to women, who then go on to develop cancer of the cervix.
Hopefully the US will see the light and realize that there is no harm in protecting girls from one of MANY STDs. I don't know why they expect that this one vaccine will convince young girls to jump into having sex all willy-nilly. There's still plenty of dangers to make sex a serious issue--pregnancy, AIDS, and all of the perpetually uncomfortable, unmentionable STDs. The UK expects it to save 100s of lives a year. Yeah for them!
And for those of you that don't know, all public spaces in England and Scotland are smoke-free as of this summer. Good timing for us :) Northern Ireland will follow suit in April. Smoky pubs no more!
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