Should The HPV Vaccination Be A Universal Mandate For Girls In Middle Childhood

Recently, debates regarding whether to make the vaccination of girls in the middle childhood against the Human Papillomavirus has been a hot topic. The Human Papillomavirus is the cause of almost all the cervical cancer as well as genital warts cases (Loretta et al., 2006). Therefore, there exist a need to make HPV vaccination to be a universal mandate among all girls in the middle childhood. This paper will take the position that vaccination for the HPV should be made a universal mandate for all girls in middle childhood.

The HPV vaccination should be made a universal mandate as a prerequisite for school enrollment so as to perpetuate herd immunity. According to Saslow et al. (2007), a herd immunity is available in a community if a high proportion of its members has received immunization for particular diseases. This makes sure that the disease does not have any foundation in the community. As a result, attaining and maintaining herd community safeguards both those who have been vaccinated and those having weak immune systems, for instance, babies and the elderly. Therefore, HPV vaccination for girls in the middle childhood should be made a universal mandate so as to reduce the amount of suffering.

According to Svensson (2009), cervical cancer is the second leading type of cancer that kills most women on the global scale. Sonia & Aguado (2004) asserts that approximately 10,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with cervical cancer annually, and about 3,700 of the women die.  As a result, by making the HPV vaccination a universal mandate for every girl in the middle childhood, a lot of cervical cancers cases will be avoided. It is, therefore, imperative to adopt the recommendation of The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of administration of vaccines to all girls between 11 and 12 years old. This is because, at this age, most of the young girls are not sexually active but they are approaching their adolescent years. Most people become sexually active during their adolescent years and hence they are at a high risk of being affected by the Human Papillomavirus.

According to reports by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Human Papillomavirus infects about 20 million persons in the U.S. with approximately 6.2 million new cases annually (Svensson, 2009). There is no cure that is available for the Human Papillomavirus, but there are treatments for health problems that are related to HPV. There are at least 30 strains of the HPV that affect more than half of the people who are sexually active during their lifetime. Food and Drugs Act approved the Merck's Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline's Cervarix vaccines in 2012 to help in curbing some strains of the Human Papillomavirus. Therefore, it is better to prevent HPV infections than to treat the health problems that are related to it, hence HPV vaccination ought to be made a universal mandate for all girls in the middle childhood.

In conclusion, it is imperative to make HPV vaccination for girls in the middle childhood be a universal mandate so as to prevent the spread of this disease to a larger part of the world’s population. In order to make this efficient, religious and philosophical exemption on the vaccination against the HPV should not be tolerated so as to entirely get rid of this disease in the future. This will lead to fewer cases of HPV infections and cervical cancer.