The Politics of Women's Health

UNITED STATES: "Immigrants' Advocates Decry Gardasil Requirement"
Los Angeles Times (10.22.08):: Mary Engel

New female immigrants ages 11-26 must be inoculated against human papillomavirus in order to become US residents, despite concerns about adding unnecessary layers to the naturalization process and questions about the HPV vaccine's efficacy for older women, immigration advocates say.

A 1996 law stipulates that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) mandate all CDC-recommended vaccines. CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends the HPV vaccine for girls ages 11-12 and catch-up shots for women up to age 26.

"It's not really a decision of ours," said Sharon Rummery, a CIS spokesperson. "We can't cherry-pick the recommendations."

CDC's advisory panel "made the recommendation based on the effectiveness and importance of the vaccine," said Curtis Allen, a CDC spokesperson. "That's their charge, not immigration."

A three-year study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine found that HPV vaccine reduced the incidence of precancerous lesions by just 17 percent - in part because many of those inoculated had already been exposed to the virus.

"Many women will very likely get this only for the purpose of the visa," said Kate Bourne, a vice president of the International Women's Health Coalition. "Quite likely they will be at the upper end of the age range, which means they are more likely to already be sexually active, and this vaccine is useless to them."

Just the first injection needs documenting during the naturalization application process, said Bourne, noting there is no follow-up ensuring completion of the three-shot series. For the many women who skip the remaining doses, the HPV vaccine will be "triply meaningless," she said.

"This is just an additional barrier to coming to America," said Tuyet G. Duong, a senior attorney for the Asian American Justice Center, a civil rights group. "It just adds another layer to what has become a toxic environment for immigrants.

As immigrant women enter our "great" nation, they are mandated to receive the first shot in a 3 part series of Gardasil, the recent vaccine that is shown effective in preventing up to 70% of cervical cancers, yet not providing them the means nor the follow-up for getting the additional two. Being that researchers are not sure sure of the effectiveness of the vaccine when not administered withing a relatively strict timeline, it is pretty likely that this mandated first shot is completely ineffective, yet, comes at the cost of approximately $120.

For some immigrant advocates, the arguement against mandating Gardasil is not around access to the rest of the vaccine's series, but rather that the "controversial" vaccine is beign administered to immigrants woman withough thorough trails and invesitigation regardin side effects and possible negative long term effects. While I compeletely understand the skepticism, I do not believe that history is repeating itself with Gardasil. One major reason for this is the widespread funding effors, administering and acceptance (right wing religious fundamentalist excluded) of Gardasil.

As someone who, voluntarity, recieved the vaccine, paying the total $360 out of pocket, my fears do not lie in unforseen harms, but rather that not enough women have access to recieving this potentially life saving vaccine.