Health Insurance in Virginia and the HPV Vaccine

Health insurance in Virginia, through USA-Online-Health-Insurance.com, usually covers vaccinations, well visits, and routine scans health diagnostics, such as mammograms and colonoscopies. One of the vaccines that may be covered by your health insurance in Virginia is that for the human papillomavirus (HPV), known to cause cervical cancer in women. The HPV vaccine, however, is not without controversy.

The idea that a vaccine could possibly halt the spread of a virus has been around since a vaccine for cholera was developed in 1879. Shortly after that, in 1885, Louis Pasteur developed the vaccine for rabies. Vaccines for tetanus, typhoid fever, and bubonic plague were being used before the turn of the century. Many more vaccines followed during the 1900ýs, like those for polio, measles, mumps, rubella and many others. Such vaccines have played a major part in the advancement of civilization in the last 100 years or so.

In this century, we've seen the advent of the first nasal vaccine for the flu, and the vaccine for HPV, marketed under the name Gardasil. However, just as the vaccines have contributed to the advancement of mankind by reducing pandemics, they have faced their share of controversy. Most recently, the controversy with Gardasil is the accusation that it damages the immune system of some of the women who take the vaccine. Accusations that Gardasil triggers lupus, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis have caused a quandary in the minds of those who may benefit from the vaccination. There have been such accusations concerning other vaccines.

This triggered a two year study of the vaccine that involved nearly 200,000 females, with the goal of determining if the vaccine causes autoimmune deficiencies. The study was directed by Dr. Chun Chao with the Kaiser Permanente Department of Research and Evaluation, located in Pasadena, California. The findings, published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, show that Gardasil does not, after all, cause autoimmune deficiencies in the recipients. Dr. Chao says this should help many parents as they struggle with the decision to have their minor daughters vaccinated. There were zero cases of autoimmune deficiencies in the women and girls who participated in the study.

Gardasil is called a quadrivalent vaccine because it protects the user from 4 kinds of HPV. According to health insurance in Virginia, two types of HPV are responsible for 75% of the cervical cancer reported in women. The other two types that Gardasil prevents are responsible for 90% of genital warts.

Genital warts affect over 6 million people in the U.S. every year, and they can also create cervical cancer in women. Since Gardasil was approved by the FDA in 2006, thousands of boys and girls have been vaccinated with the three-step process. Gardasil is supposed to prevent genital warts in boys, and in now, more and more, being suggested for boys as well as girls. This is due to the frequency of oral cancer in boys and men, caused by HPV. Your health insurance in Virginia will continue to stay up to date on medications that will keep their customers healthy.