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Can we vaccinate against STIs?
Genital herpes, syphilis, chlamydia… These so-called “sexually-transmissible infections” (or STIs) are not at all the same as HIV/AIDS.
Some can even be prevented by vaccination. This is certainly true of hepatitis B, which can cause cirrhosis and primitive carcinoma of the liver – a form of cancer that kills 6,000 people each year in France. It is also true of human papillomaviruses (HPVs) which can cause cervical cancer 20 to 30 years after infection.
According to the WHO, the hepatitis B virus is 50 to 100 times more infectious than the HIV virus. Although relatively unrecognized among French citizens, this infection affects around 300,000 people in metropolitan France. The virus can be sexually transmitted, transmitted via blood or from mother to child. To prevent it there is only one option available: vaccination.
Infection with the papillomavirus can lead to various genital diseases: condylomata (genital warts) which are a kind of small, benign, but extremely contagious wart; but most importantly it can lead to cervical cancer, as we have just seen. There are two vaccines available to protect against HPV infection: Gardasil, developed by Merck and Co and marketed by Sanofi Pasteur MSD, and Cervarix developed by GSK. Both vaccines must be administered towards the end of childhood or the beginning of adolescence, before the start of sexual activity.
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14 article(s)
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