A nurse administers a shot of Gardasil a vaccine for HPV, or human papillomavirus to a 14-year-old patient
Generally the fact that a vaccine appears to be as safe as the manufacturer had promised shouldn't be news. It should be a given. But when it comes to the controversial vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), even the most straightforward data come with an asterisk.
The vaccine, called Gardasil and manufactured by Merck, is one of the first immunizations to protect against a cancer in this case, cervical cancer, which is most commonly caused by infection with HPV. Because the virus is sexually transmitted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended in 2006 that...
