In an open letter addressed, 2 learned societies call on the presidential candidates to mobilize to improve anti-HPV vaccination.
France ranks in the last ranks of European countries in terms of vaccination against papillomavirus (HPV), responsible for cervical cancer. In an open letter to the 2017 presidential candidates (1), Prof. Philippe Descamps, president of the international relations commission denounces the failure of the vaccine policy and does not hesitate to speak of “French drama”.
Each year in the country, more than 3,000 women are affected by this cancer, and more than 1,000 of them die from it. However, this cancer can be prevented thanks to the anti-HPV vaccine conferring an 80% protection against the viruses HPV 18 and 16. “Excellent news for humanity since the vast majority of adults having sexual intercourse will one day encounter the one of these viruses which are not “markers of bad life” as some claim, but simply witnesses of sexual activity “, recalls the head of the woman-mother-child pole at the University Hospital of Angers.
Authorized in 2007 in France, this vaccine was quickly denigrated by “incompetent pseudo-specialists”. Five years after it was put on the market, around fifty women filed a complaint and accused Gardasil of causing autoimmune diseases. Complaints classified without follow-up in view of “extremely rigorous monitoring carried out for more than 10 years in 130 countries and concerning more than 200 million doses of vaccines administered”, notes the doctor. This one assures him: “the appearance of multiple sclerosis, thyroiditis or any other disease, a day, a month or a year after an anti-HPV vaccination, constitutes an independent” temporal coincidence ” vaccination ”.
An essential political commitment
But too late, the damage is done. Concerned parents have turned away from vaccination. While in countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, Portugal or Spain – which offer vaccination in schools – vaccination coverage exceeds 80%, barely 20% of young French women aged 15 are vaccinated.
A “cruel and unfair” situation, the gynecologist got carried away in his 3-page letter. Cruel because thousands of young girls are at risk of developing a disease which can be eradicated, and unfair because the first victims will be women from disadvantaged backgrounds who have less easy access to screening.
Not to mention all the cases of cancer of the vulva, vagina, anus or the ENT sphere for which there is no organized screening. And cancer risk isn’t just for women. Carrying the virus, men are also at risk of developing penile or anal cancer. “This is why some countries such as Australia, the United States, Austria or Italy offer vaccination programs […] to young boys in order to limit the circulation of the virus “, underlines the specialist, adding that” deexualizing the HPV vaccination would probably limit the current reluctance of parents to vaccinate their child “.
Faced with this “catastrophic record”, Professor Philippe Descamps calls on the candidates for the Presidency of the Republic to mobilize. “The public authorities and elected officials must assume their responsibilities and initiate a revival of vaccination as quickly as possible, so that parents finally understand the benefits for the health of their children”, he says, slipping in passing that ” what has been done in many industrialized countries should be able to be done in France ”.
(1) This letter is supported by the French National College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF), and the French Society of Colposcopy and Cervico-Vaginal Pathology (SFCPCV)
.
