A fantastic personal essay about HPV

A shot that could save thousands of lives in the U.S. By Alice Dreger, an associate professor of medical humanities and bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University I don’t have cervical cancer–yet. What I have are strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, and an enormous […]

A shot that could save thousands of lives in the U.S.

By Alice Dreger, an associate professor of medical humanities and bioethics at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University

I don't have cervical cancer–yet. What I have are strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, and an enormous sense of relief that, in spite of some opposition, a federal panel just voted to recommend that all girls and women ages 11 to 26 routinely receive the new HPV vaccine against cervical cancer.

As a historian of medicine, I look back at the patients' rights movements around HIV/AIDS and breast cancer and see all of those people who stood up to make absolutely sure that the maximum resources of medical science and public health were thrown at these horrific diseases.

So, why have women like me been mostly silent in the public discussions about the cervical cancer vaccine?

Read on to find out.