Student Health offers free HPV vaccine

In the fall, Pitt’s Student Health Services began offering a free vaccine that prevents the… In the fall, Pitt’s Student Health Services began offering a free vaccine that prevents the human papillomavirus, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. and a known cause of cancer.

But a majority of students have yet to take them up on their offer.

In October of 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began to recommend HPV vaccines to men as well as women, because men often carry the virus.

However, vaccination rates for HPV among males remain low. The New York Times reported last year that, while a third of women across the country are vaccinated, only 1 percent of men have received the three-shot series.

At Pitt, Marian Vanek, director of Student Health Services, said that approximately 32 percent of students who have received the HPV vaccine at Student Health are male.

That proportion is far better than the national average, but Natasha Lejbman, the vice president of the Student Health Advisory Board, said that percentage comes out of a total of only 1 percent of students at Pitt who have been vaccinated for HPV through Student Health.

Pitt’s male students responded not with distrust, but with indifference regarding the HPV vaccine.

Steve Melick, a junior nursing major, said he has not received the shots and was unaware that they were offered at Student Health.

“I don’t know why I don’t have it, I guess it hasn’t been pushed on me hard enough,” Melick said.

Eli Maxwell, a sophomore, said he’d had his first shot but didn’t go back for the rest.

“I just kinda forgot about it,” Maxwell said. “Maybe I really don’t see the need for it.”

There are 40 different strains of HPV, not all of them harmful, which are passed on through sexual contact. According to the Centers for Disease Control, most sexually active people in the U.S. will have HPV at some point in their lifetimes.

The most common averse health effect of HPV is genital warts, but HPV is also a known carcinogen. In women, HPV can cause cervical, anal, vaginal, vulvar or throat cancer. In men it has been linked to penile, anal and throat cancer.

When the HPV vaccine first came out in 2006, the CDC recommended it to women between the ages of 11 and 26. In October 2011, the CDC also began to recommend Gardasil for men ages 13 through 21. The vaccine is administered in three shots, leaving more than a month in between each dose.

There are two brands of HPV vaccine, Cervarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Gardasil, manufactured by Merck.

At Pitt, Student Health Services is trying to spread the word about the HPV vaccine.

Student Health Services has HPV clinic hours every Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. from now until June during which students can receive the vaccine free of charge. It normally costs about $120 a dose.

In addition, Student Health Services will hold open clinic days for HPV vaccinations on Tuesday, Feb. 14, Friday, Feb. 24, and Wednesday, Feb. 29, this month in the Medical Arts Building.

“The open clinic days are just the latest installment in a larger campaign to get the word out about the HPV vaccine,” Vanek said. Since Student Health Services began its Healthy U initiative in the fall of last year, the number of students getting the HPV vaccine has increased.

“Although much better than the national average, we hope to continue to improve this percentage,” Vanek said in reference to the proportion of male students who had been vaccinated.

In order to do that, Student Health Services counts on the help of the Student Health Advisory Board, their student-run arm designed to educate the student body about health issues.

SHAB employs a variety of techniques to get the word out about the HPV vaccines, including meeting with the Campus Women’s Organization and planning to table at the Vagina Monologues. However, attempts at drumming up publicity are made difficult by the fact that SHAB consists of only 10 people.

“We’re a small organization,” Lejbman said. “Our goal is to talk to as many people as we can, who we know will talk to other people.”

SHAB’s attempts to reach male students have not been very successful. Lejbman said the group tried talking to the fraternities and found them to be unreceptive.

“There’s a definite stigma,” Lejbman said. “When the vaccine was first released, all the commercials were aimed at women. Now it’s advertised as a way men can protect women, but men need to know that they can be affected too.”

There is another reason people might avoid the HPV shot. Since the vaccine is fairly new, some fear that the side effects are not yet fully known.

Katie Boyk, a junior biological sciences major, did not receive the vaccine at the behest of her mother, who is a nurse. She said that her mother was leery about possible unknown side effects.

“I definitely wouldn’t get it now,” Boyk said. “I don’t know if it would be OK in my lifetime.”

This kind of controversy follows any new vaccine.

Vanek said there had been some speculation that the HPV vaccine might be related to autoimmune disorders. Several research studies, including one that included 190,000 women, found no such association.

“The HPV vaccine appears to be quite safe,” Vanek said.