Almost every day, Kent Bullis sees patients who carry some form of the Human Papillomavirus in the Amelia T. Wood Health Center. Bullis, the medical director at the Health Center, said HPV is by far the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States.
With more than 100 strains, HPV infects at least 50 percent of sexually active people sometime in their lives, according to a 2005 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate. Most people infected with the virus show no symptoms, according to the CDC. Although HPV can leave the body on its own, it can also cause genital warts and lead to cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, anus or penis.
HPV can be especially dangerous to women, as it is the most common cause of cervical cancer, which is the second leading cause of death from cancer for women, according to the American Society of Clinical Investigation.
After the release of Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents some types of HPV, Indiana legislators are taking notice of the prominence of the virus.
Sue Errington, Indiana State Senator for Delaware County, said that she became fully aware of the HPV issue at a national conference for women state legislators in January.
Errington, along with 15 other state senators, authored SB327, a bill that would make Gardasil a mandatory vaccination for all Indiana schoolgirls entering the sixth grade. The bill was altered during committee discussions to require schools to inform parents of the vaccine and the link between HPV and cervical cancer rather than make the vaccination mandatory. The Indiana Senate passed the bill on Friday, and it is under review by Gov. Mitch Daniels.
A Ball State junior who asked to be unnamed said she contracted HPV in May 2006 and would have been vaccinated if Gardasil had been on the market at that time. The student said the virus is no longer active in her system, but she would still be in favor of making the vaccination mandatory.
"We need to be realistic and stop saying 'abstinence, abstinence, abstinence,'" she said, saying that a woman could be in a serious relationship with her partner with neither of them knowing if the partner had HPV.
Women can be vaccinated in order to prevent contraction of the virus. Released by the Food and Drug Administration on June 8, the Gardasil vaccine protects women against the four most common and most dangerous strains of HPV. The strains prevented by Gardisal are HPV types 6 and 8, which cause 70 percent of cervical cancer cases, and HPV types 6 and 11, which cause 90 percent of genital warts cases, according to Merck & Co., Inc., the manufacturer of the product.
The vaccine is given in a series of three shots, with a total cost of $360 for all three. Female students who are at least 19 years old, uninsured and live in a low income household can apply for a free vaccination through the Health Center, Bullis said.
Lisa Thomason, health educator at the Health Center, said that many students are aware of the virus but don't take necessary steps to protect themselves from it.
"There's still somewhat of a [disconnection] between being aware of something and feeling ... personally at risk," she said.
HPV can be transmitted through any form of sexual contact, Diana Jones, nurse practitioner at the Ball State University Women's Center, said.
"Probably about 80 percent of the female population has been exposed to HPV and don't know it," she said.
Indiana is not the only state legislature to consider laws regarding the Gardasil vaccine. Thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia have introduced legislature to require parents of young daughters to be educated about Gardasil and HPV's link to cervical cancer. On Feb. 2, Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a statewide order making Gardasil a mandatory vaccination for girls entering the sixth grade, according to a Feb. 3 Associated Press article.
Although some parents have expressed opposition to an Indiana law requiring the vaccination, Jones and Errington both said they would support such a law.
"You don't think your child is going to be exposed to diphtheria or tetanus, and you still have them vaccinated," Jones said. "If you can offer that protection [from cervical cancer] for a lifetime, why not?"
The unnamed student who contracted HPV did not know what HPV was before she had abnormal pap smear test results, as she experienced no physical symptoms, she said. Because of this, she favors Indiana SB327, which requires schools to inform parents of HPV and Gardasil.
"I just think that people should know that HPV is everywhere," she said. "You never know how many partners your partner has had before."
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