Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2006
Gardasil
From the "Tell Someone" ads running on TV, you might think there is an epidemic of cervical cancer. But it's just Merck's clever way of alerting people to the first vaccine, Gardasil, to fight a cancer. Cervical cancer, as the ads point out, is commonly caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is most commonly spread during sexual intercourse. That's why an advisory panel for the Centers' for Disease Control (CDC) recommended last summer that Gardasil become part of routine immunization for girls between the ages of 11 and 12, a suggestion the agency is likely to accept.