Have you heard of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children? They believe vaccines may cause health problems, other diseases, neurological problems, and even sterilization. This creates a problem because if their child contracts an age-old disease, it puts other children (such as babies who are still too young for specific vaccines) at greater risk.
Although HPV isn’t as communicative as cholera, tuberculosis, measles, mumps, or other diseases of that nature, it’s still incredibly dangerous and can be transmitted easily through sexual interaction, at the very least. Numerous studies have linked HPV with cervical cancer.
The statistics around a parent’s refusal to vaccinate daughters against HPV are striking.
As of 2010:
- 75 percent of teenage girls in the U.S. were not up to date on their HPV vaccinations.
- 44 percent of parents said they didn't plan to get their daughters vaccinated, which was up from 40 percent two years earlier.
Here are the reasons given by parents who did not want to give daughters the HPV vaccine:
An article that details this information further stated:
The 14 percent who answered "not sexually active" highlight the misconception that people who are not having sex don't need the vaccination. It's most effective when given before a person starts having sex. There's also the misconception here that parents actually know when their kids start having sex.
The 16.4 percent that cited safety concerns was striking, since the number tripled between 2008 and 2010. Unfortunately the subjects didn't expand on what those concerns were or what prompted the rise. And then, the "not needed/not necessary" responses ... see the mortality statistics above.
In the U.S., only 45 percent of adults said they would be in favor of allowing teenagers to get vaccinated without parental consent. Though clearly sometimes parents just don't understand.
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