The Truth About HPV

I've been outraged by the commercials that talk about the Human papillomavirus. Why? Because the commercials are intended to create panic among women of all ages who are being told that they should tell all their friends, moms, aunts and sisters that cervical cancer is caused by HPV.

So, what's the problem? Well, for one thing, the verbage used in these commercials lead people to believe that all cervical cancer comes from this virus. It does not.

Second, they fail to mention that the Human Papillomavirus is a sexually transmitted disease. It is.

Much like the AIDS paranoia of the mid-80', this campaign is designed to do two things...
1. To get as many women as possible to spend money on the testing and pharmaceuticals used to diagnose and prevent HPV.
2. Sugar coat the dangers of promiscuous sex and promote the liberal "if it feels good - do it" agenda.

So, what's the problem? People need to take precautions, right? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? WRONG. This is no different than the days when the media fed us all a line of bull about AIDS. Like the 1985 Life Magazine cover that announced, "NOW, NO ONE IS SAFE FROM AIDS", which was designed to convince Americans that heterosexuals were as much at risk for acquiring AIDS as gays and intravenous drug users. This liberal hogwash was all about downplaying the filth that spread the disease and creating the kind of hysteria in the mainstream that makes billions for pharmaceutical companies who develop tests to rule out AIDS infection of middle aged housewives in Bismarck, North Dakota. It was a win-win situation. Take the spotlight off homosexuals and druggies while at the same time - making billions. Beautiful, isn't it?

In 1987, the CDC predicted that AIDS would be the number one killer of heterosexuals by 1991. As of right now, 15 years later, AIDS doesn't even make it into the top ten. In fact, according to the CDC, almost 70 percent of AIDS victims in America acquired the virus through homosexual sex or intravenous drug use. Only 13 percent of cases are even alleged to be through heterosexual contact. Also noted should be the fact that the recorded methods of transmission are based almost entirely on self-reports and no one who gets the virus from heterosexual sex lies and says he got it from homosexual sex or intravenous drug use, but the reverse is not true.

Now that the AIDS hysteria has died down, evidently the liberal liars need a new type of panic. The type that not only gets grandmothers and nuns to have tests for a sexually transmitted disease that they are not at risk for, but to pay for a vaccination to prevent it. The best yet, though, is the latest plug that encourages mothers and fathers all over America to take their young daughters to the doctor for a vaccination to prevent a sexually transmitted disease on the pretense that they may be preventing cancer - rather than teaching their kids that abstaining from sex is a much better path to take.

So, yeah - I'm mad as hell that the healthcare community is, once again, standing by while a major misrepresentation of facts is being perpetrated by pharmaceutical companies and the media. So, let's set the record straight....

If you have sex with someone other than your husband (or your husband is having sex outside the marriage) or you are a young person having sex outside the boundaries of a personal, lifetime commitment, you are at risk for a sexually transmitted disease that may put you at risk of developing cervical cancer. If, however, you are not doing these things - you're not going to develop HPV because it is a SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE. And it's perfectly o.k. for parents to use this as yet another example of why it's important to abstain.