Cathy Mangan

In the 2005 Indiana Youth Risk Behavior Survey of more than 1,500 high-school students, 44.5 percent said they engaged in sexual intercourse before they graduated. 

Teens have long been warned about the health risks of being sexually active, including the possibility of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, and other sexually transmitted diseases. Health officials now have added human papillomavirus (HPV) infection to the list.

The HPV infection can last for months or years and lead to cervical cancer. 

In the U.S., there is a new vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration that can prevent girls and young women from contracting cervical cancer from HPV. Gardasil, a vaccine produced by Merck, protects young women against the four major strains of HPV, which cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases. The vaccine is most effective if it's administered before a girl has had sex for the first time.

"The best way to prevent getting HPV is not to have sex, because a person usually can't tell if he or she is infected," according to an Indiana State Department of Health fact sheet. "Infected people can give the virus to others during sexual contact without knowing it."

About 20 million Americans are infected with HPV each year, and 6.2 million new cases are identified annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the U.S., about 11,150 cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in 2007, and 3,670 women will die, according to the American Cancer Society.

Despite the vaccine's importance in preventing one of the deadliest forms of cancer, many girls ages 9 to 26 -- which is the recommended age range for receiving the vaccine -- seem to be unsure of the facts regarding HPV and its vaccine.

During a roundtable discussion at a summer program at Girls Inc., a nonprofit youth group, two girls knew basic facts about the vaccine, while four others knew almost nothing.

Communication and education about HPV is important before a girl ever receives the shots, says Dr. Lanette Brown-Jones, a physician of adolescent medicine at St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital.

"Parents will sometimes come in and say they want their child to have the shot, but the child doesn't know why. I explain to the parents that I'm happy to give it to their daughter, but you need to tell her what it's about."

Brown-Jones is also happy to explain HPV to her patients if the parents ask her to do so.This vaccine is different from others because the disease it protects against is not a communicable disease.

"Acquiring HPV is a behavior," said Brown-Jones. "If people don't have sex, they don't get it."

Amanda McGee, 14, a participant in the Girls Inc. roundtable, already knew about HPV and the vaccine. She received the shots after talking with her doctor and her mother."I think that they want the girls to get the vaccination as soon as possible, so that when you start having sex as an adult . . . you won't get cervical cancer," the freshman said.

But Amanda believes a vaccine should have been developed for boys, too."Boys can give the virus to the girls, and we can get the cervical cancer," she said. "So I think they should have made a vaccine for girls and boys at the same time."

As further research is conducted to create a vaccine for males, Indiana passed legislation designed to educate the public. Beginning this school year, Public Law 80 requires all public, charter and accredited nonpublic schools to provide information about HPV and the vaccine to the parents or guardians of sixth-grade girls.

For the next school year, 2008-09, parents or guardians of sixth-grade girls will also be required to fill out an anonymous survey, noting whether they plan for their daughter to receive the vaccine.

State Sen. Connie Lawson, R-Danville, had originally proposed a bill that would have mandated the HPV vaccine for all sixth-grade girls in Indiana. That bill failed to pass the legislature. Without a requirement, Lawson believes, girls from low-income families are less likely to get vaccinated.

"My one regret is that the only way to reach all girls in the sixth grade of all socioeconomic conditions is to have a school requirement," Lawson said.

Families can opt out of the vaccine for religious or medical reasons, just as they do with other vaccines.Twenty-three other states have considered mandating the vaccine for sixth-graders, too, but only Texas and Virginia actually did so.

More than 40 other states require some education in the schools about HPV similar to Indiana's new law. And all states have access to Vaccines for Children, which provides vaccines to children with Medicaid.

Lawson plans to reach out to Hoosier girls and women in other ways. "Now it's my responsibility to continue to work on funding to make sure that all people who do need access to the vaccine and can't afford it, can get it." 

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Alesha Peterson, 17; Cathy Mangan, 17; and Perri McKinley, 18. 

Copyright 2007 Y-Press