Student Health Services welcomes new vaccine

An estimated 80 percent of sexually active people will contract a virus that could potentially mutate into cancer at some point in their life, said Nancy Harris, women’s health coordinator for the Office of Health Promotion.

Three out of four Americans-men and women-between the ages of 15 and 49, have been infected with genital human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV, said Harris. But the University Student Health Services may be able to help.

The Food and Drug Administration recently added another vaccine to health centers around the world. Gardasil, developed by Merck, is a vaccine helping sexually active women prevent 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of genital warts.

“Student Health Services is very excited to be able to offer this vaccine to our students,” Harris said.

The current supply of the vaccine is low but is available at the clinic.

“I’m not sure every campus will have the vaccine,” Linda Hancock, assistant director of the Office of Health Promotion, said. “VCU is just fortunate to have a clinic that has many services. The vaccine is already being given in our clinic.”

HPV spreads by skin-to-skin contact in vaginal, oral or anal sex. Symptoms may never appear, even if an individual is infected with the virus.

If a woman contracts a strand of high-risk HPV, it could cause the cells in her cervix, located at the lower part of the womb, to mutate. The cells reproduce and continue to change, which could eventually lead to cancer of the cervix.

With little to no symptoms, HPV often goes undiagnosed in women and men.

Although 90 percent of people will clear the virus from their bodies on their own, some cannot.

“If your immune system has difficulty clearing the virus and you have one of the high risk types, you are at risk for cancer of the cervix,” Hancock said, explaining the dangerous position in which women could potentially find themselves.

Women should continue to have regular Pap tests to watch for cervical cancer as well as HPV, Hancock and Harris said.

There is currently no test for men who may have HPV, besides visual identification of genital warts. This makes it easy to pass to a partner. Condoms will not stop infection because uncovered areas can be exposed to the virus as well.

“It is estimated that half of all women get HPV,” Hancock said. “This is an opportunity to protect women from cancer of the cervix.”

There is no treatment for HPV, so the body must clear the virus itself.

With HPV so prominent among today’s sexually active people and with no current treatment to a virus that could potentially cause cancer, a vaccine is the best way to prevent the cell-changing virus.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found Gardasil to be almost 100 percent effective in preventing diseases caused by HPV. This includes the changing of cells in the cervix, vulva and vagina, as well as genital warts.