As a parent, you try to protect your kids from all kinds of harm
- from unsafe drivers, playground bullies, bike falls and broken
hearts. If you could protect them from cancer, wouldn't you?
Well, the great news is that you can, with a vaccine against HPV
or Human Papilloma Virus. What many people do not know is that
HPV is the primary cause of cervical cancer in women, causing
more than 12,000 cases and 4,000 deaths per year in the United
States. It also causes about 7,000 head and neck, anal and
penile cancers in men each year. And in spite of the fact that
the vaccine has been shown to be more than 90 percent effective
in preventing some types of cancer, only a small number of us
have been vaccinated. In fact, only 5 percent of age-eligible
individuals in the western Upper Peninsula have received even
one dose of the vaccine. Why are so few of us vaccinated? Well,
as it turns out, HPV is a sexually transmitted infection and
that sometimes makes the discussion more difficult. But it is
important to know the