Community

August is National Immunization Awareness Month, reminding us of the importance of being vaccinated/having your children vaccinated with Gardasil, which protects against four strains of human papillomavirus or HPV. HPV is the virus that causes both cervical cancer and genital warts. Gardasil has been available to girls since 2006, but the FDA just approved Gardasil for boys as well, ages 9-26, to aid in the protection against genital warts! In March of 2007, Virginia became the second state in the nation to require all sixth-grade girls to receive the HPV vaccination by the year 2009. Our hope is that boys will soon be required to receive the vaccine as well.

What is Gardasil?

Gardasil is the only vaccine currently available that protects against the two strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause 70% of cervical cancer cases in women and 90% of genital warts in both men and women. Currently, Gardasil is only FDA-approved to protect against the two strains of HPV that cause 90% of warts in men. Perhaps in the future studies will be conducted to determine the effectiveness of Gardasil in protecting males from the two strains that cause 70% of cervical cancer cases in women, thus keeping them from becoming carriers of these potentially deadly strains.

What is HPV?

HPV is a sexually transmitted infection that causes 99% of cervical cancer cases. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the United States. Currently, more than 20 million people are infected with HPV. Each year, more than 6.2 million new infections occur in the U.S. It’s safe to say that if you have had sexual contact with more than one person OR your partner has had sexual contact with more than one person, you have been exposed to HPV. More than 50 percent of sexually active people are infected with HPV at some point in their lives. HPV is contracted through skin-to-skin contact as opposed to the exchange of fluids; therefore, it can be passed through many forms of sexual contact, not just intercourse.

Planned Parenthood is now offering Gardasil to both boys and girls of any age! Most insurance carriers will cover at least a portion of the vaccine cost. For those who are uninsured and are 18 or younger, we participate in the vaccines for children program, through the state of Virginia, allowing children to receive Gardasil for free. For people between the ages of 19 and 26 who are uninsured or underinsured, we will help you enroll in the Merck assistance program. No one should turn down vaccination because of cost!

We’ve Moved!

Planned Parenthood has recently combined our Virginia Beach and Norfolk office buildings into a brand-new building at 515 Newtown Road! Our new building is environmentally-friendly, and can accommodate a much larger number of patients. For more information or to book an appointment, please call us at 499-PLAN!

For those of you on the Peninsula, our Hampton office is conveniently located at 403 Yale Drive, which is at the intersection of Mercury and Big Bethel. The phone number is 826-2079. Or you can call 499-PLAN and easily be transferred to Hampton too.

Although we receive no state or federal funding, we are able to provide low-cost services in part due to grants and the generosity of our donors. To learn the different ways you can support us, visit www.ppsev.org/support/index.html or call our development office at 962-9081.