Human papillomavirus vaccine: a boon or curse.

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women worldwide, with about 493,000 new cases diagnosed annually. Of 274,000 deaths due to cervical cancer each year, more than 80% occur in developing countries, and this proportion is expected to increase to 90% by 2020. Up to 70% of sexually active women will become infected with human papilloma virus (HPV) during their lifetime. Even though screening reduces the risk of cervical cancer, it does not prevent HPV infection or development of precancerous lesions which need careful follow-up and often need excision. It was observed in a study, pre-adolescent vaccination alone reduced cancer incidence by 44% and was more effective than screening alone. A combined approach of pre-adolescent vaccination and screening of adult women was more effective than either alone. The high probability of acquiring HPV infection once, one has become sexually active raises the question of whether the vaccine will be effective if given to girls who have already been infected with HPV type 16 or 18. In April 2010, The Indian parliament's Standing Committee on Health, began probing the use of HPV vaccines in 2 states after the reported deaths of 7 girls, and concluded that "safety and rights of children were highly compromised and violated." Though the question of immunization of older girls and women deserves attention, from a public health perspective, the first priority in resource-poor settings would be to vaccinate young adolescent girls.

HIV: is a vaccine the answer?

Getting to zero: zero new HIV infections, zero deaths from AIDS-related illness, zero discrimination is the theme of World AIDS Day 2012. Given the spread of the epidemic today, getting to zero may sound difficult, but significant progress is underway. The total annual loss for the entire country due to HIV is 7% of GDP, which exceeds India's annual health expenditure in 2004. The additional loss due to loss of labor income and increased medical expenditure as measured by the external transfers, account for 5% of the country's health expenditure and 0.23% of GDP. Given that the HIV incidence rate is only 0.27% in India, these losses are quite staggering. Despite the remarkable achievements in development of anti-retroviral therapies against HIV and the recent advances in new prevention technologies, the rate of new HIV infections continue to outpace efforts on HIV prevention and control. Thus, the development of a safe and effective vaccine for prevention and control of AIDS remains a global public health priority and the greatest opportunity to eventually end the AIDS pandemic.