Well, well, well – it looks like the mainstream has accidentally stumbled upon the truth that skin cancer might be caused by something other than the sun. Researchers have found that some strains of HPV, a common sexually acquired virus, can dramatically increase your skin cancer risk.
Read the full story.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

The Cancer-Causing Sex Virus

Matthew Herper, 07.21.10, 04:15 PM EDT

HPV–known for causing cervical cancer–is

emerging as the leading cause of throat cancer in

men. Should they get the vaccine too?

Nine Things You Need To Know About HPV

Martin Duffy, a Boston consultant and economist, thought he just had a sore throat. When it persisted for months, he went to the doctor and learned there was a tumor on his tonsils.

Duffy, now 70, had none of the traditional risk factors for throat cancer. He doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink and has run 40 Boston marathons. Instead, his cancer was caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is sexually transmitted and a common cause of throat and mouth cancer.

HPV tumors have a better prognosis than those caused by too many years of booze and cigarettes. But Duffy “is in the unlucky 20%” whose cancer comes back–despite rounds of chemotherapy and radiation that melted 20 more pounds off a lean 150-pound frame. Now the cancer has spread throughout his throat, making eating and talking difficult. “I made my living as a public speaker,” he says. “Now I sound like Daffy Duck.” Duffy believes he has only a few months left. “How do you tell the people you love you love them?” he asks.

Nine Things You Need To Know About HPV

Most strains of the HPV virus are harmless, but persistent infections with two HPV strains cause 70% of the 12,000 cases of cervical cancers diagnosed annually in the U.S. Other forms of the sexually transmitted virus can cause penile and anal cancer, and genital warts. The HPV throat cancer connection has emerged in just the last few years and is so new that the government doesn’t track its incidence. Researchers believe it is transmitted via oral sex. But top researchers estimate that there are 11,300 HPV throat cancers each year in the U.S.–and the numbers are growing fast as people have been having more sexual partners since the 1960s. By 2015 there could be 20,000 cases. For more surprising discoveries about HPV, read here.

These big numbers have some top researchers arguing that drug makers should test whether HPV vaccines now used to prevent cervical cancer in women can also prevent throat infections in boys. Two vaccines, Gardasil from Merck ( MRK – news – people ) and Cervarix from GlaxoSmithKline ( GSK – news – people ), are approved for preventing cervical cancer. Gardasil is approved for use in boys only to prevent genital warts.

Vaccinating boys could stop this meteoric increase in throat cancer. “Clearly, boys need to be vaccinated,” says Marshall Posner, the incoming medical director of head and neck cancer at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. “I want my kids to be vaccinated. I don’t see a downside to these vaccines.”

There’s only one problem: The vaccine manufacturers aren’t terribly hot on the idea. GlaxoSmithKline says it has no plans to study throat cancer. It adds that it is “committed to providing a vaccine specifically designed to protect against cervical cancer in girls and young women.”

Merck, the maker of Gardasil, seemed more interested a couple of years ago. In 2008 it funded Maura Gillison, the Ohio State University researcher who established the HPV-throat-cancer link in 2000, to do a pilot study to show that test could reliably detect HPV infection in the throat. The pilot study was successful. By early 2009 Gillison says that a larger study of the vaccine in throat cancer looked close to being green lit.

But after Merck agreed to buy rival Schering-Plough ( SGP – news – people ) for $41 billion in March 2009, interest in a big study seemed to evaporate, Gillison says. In a statement, Merck says that “due to competing research and business priorities, we decided not to move ahead with an efficacy study at this time.”

The drug makers’ reticence probably stems from a fear that a throat-cancer vaccine would be hard to get approved. Papilloma viruses usually cause cancer slowly, causing pre-cancerous lesions that take many years to blossom into full-fledged malignant tumors. Papilloma viruses cause the horn-like growths in rabbits that probably gave rise to myths of “jackalopes” in the American West. In the cervix, early abnormal growths can be picked up with a diagnostic test, the Pap smear. Clinical trials of Gardasil and Cervarix took advantage of this, measuring the number of pre-cancerous growths prevented by the vaccines.

But there are no easy-to-detect pre-cancers in the throat. Adolescent boys would have to be followed for decades to to see if the vaccine prevented throat cancer, an unlikely scenario. Short of this, studies could only look at the prevention of HPV throat infections, not cancer or cancer precursors directly. Approving a vaccine for wide use based on this type of short-term data would require a leap of faith that the Food and Drug Administration might not be willing to take.

Top researchers say the federal government needs to step in and fund the long study if drug companies cannot be persuaded to do it themselves. “I’m sorry Merck decided not to do it,” says Posner. “But in the end, this is a federal responsibility. It’s a public health issue.”

For his part, Martin Duffy thinks that drug companies’ complacent attitude toward throat cancer would be different if more of their employees were in his situation. “It will change real fast,” he says, “if one of their executives comes down with this disease.”

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

Protect yourself, protect your community

A new FREE vaccine to protect Australians from pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus is ready. Panvax® H1N1 vaccine was registered by the Therapeutic Goods Administration on 18 September 2009.
There is clear evidence of serious or fatal health complications for some people who catch this flu. It is a new strain of flu that spreads easily from person to person, and experience in other countries shows that this is not just a winter flu – it could come back during spring and summer.

Vaccination is the safest response for the community, particularly as large numbers of people continue to be infected, and some are suffering serious health complications. By getting vaccinated you can protect yourself and help stop this flu spreading.

How a vaccine works

Panvax® H1N1 Vaccine contains extracts of protein from the new flu strain. Once you get vaccinated, proteins prompt your body to produce antibodies to protect you from the virus.
Protection after vaccination varies from person to person, but people generally start producing the antibodies that provide protection two weeks after the vaccination. Protection is expected to last for at least one year.

This vaccine does not contain live virus and cannot give you influenza.

People who should get immediate vaccination

All people can get vaccinated but some people are more at risk of severe outcomes if they catch this flu. Vaccination is strongly recommended for:

• Pregnant women
• Parents and guardians of infants up to six months old
• People with underlying chronic conditions, including:
  • heart disease;
  • asthma and other lung diseases;
  • cancer;
  • diabetes;
  • kidney disease;
  • neurological disease;
  • other chronic conditions (talk to your GP)
• People who are severely obese
• Indigenous Australians
• Frontline health workers
• Community care workers

Where do I get vaccinated? How do I get this vaccine?

Vaccinations will be available from 30 September. Vaccination will be available from a range of locations, including GP offices, vaccination clinics, hospitals and health centres. To check vaccination location in your State or Territory, go to:

Health department websites and phone numbers

WA: call 1800 186 815 or visit http://www.health.wa.gov.au/swine_flu/home/
SA: call 1800 022 222 or visit www.flu.sa.gov.au
VIC: call: 1300 882 008 or visit www.humanswineflu.health.vic.gov.au
TAS: 1800 358 362 (1800 FLU DOC) or visit www.pandemic.tas.gov.au
ACT: call 02 6205 2300 or visit www.health.act.gov.au/flupandemic
NSW: visit www.emergency.health.nsw.gov.au/swineflu/vaccination/index.asp, or call 180 2007 for your local Public Health Unit contact
QLD: 13HEALTH (13 43 25 84) or vist www.health.qld.gov.au/swineflu/html/vacc.asp
NT: call 08 8922 8044 or visit www.swinefluvax.nt.gov.au

Sourced and published by Henry Sapiecha 18th October 2009

Batman beats Superman

Batman is related to a bat.

Bats carry the deadly

Henda Virus.

Vet dies from the deadly

disease.

26 August 2009

fact sheet for the community.

community engagement calendar.

Find out more information on Hendra testing.

Published by Henry Sapiecha 4th Sept 2009