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Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

penntoday.upenn.edu

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Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#11

Post by kstrauser »

basisword wrote: post #8
sitkack wrote: post #2

PSA, everyone should be getting the HPV vaccine, regardless of age and gender. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/wh... https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/oropharyngeal-cancer.html

I know very little about this so excuse me if this is a stupid question. In my country all teenage girls have been getting the vaccine for at least the last 15-20 years. Therefore all of the women I'm likely to sleep with are vaccinated. Does it still make sense as a man to get it?

"All". Even if that's true, some time you might travel and be around women who aren't vaccinated, and you get an infection with something bearing the lovely name "genital warts". It has the long-term complications of "cancer of the cervix, vulva, vagina, penis, anus, mouth, tonsils, or throat". And you can give it to any other women you get with for the next few years, potentially giving them any of those relevant cancers.

So yes. It absolutely makes sense for a man to get it. For selfish reasons, you probably don't want penis cancer. For non-selfish ones, you don't want give other partners cervical cancer.

Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#12

Post by kstrauser »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #10
basisword wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know very little about this so excuse me if this is a stupid question. In my country all teenage girls have been getting the vaccine for at least the last 15-20 years. Therefore all of the women I'm likely to sleep with are vaccinated. Does it still make sense as a man to get it?

I guess I am a weirdo, but vaccines are the closest thing we have to space magic. Generally, they are very safe and prevent some of the most devastating diseases. All for the most minor discomfort. I want everything I can get, even if I am unlikely to be exposed to the real infectious agent.

Same. And while the shingles vaccine isn't fun, I've known enough people who described their bouts with shingles as "nearly suicide inducing" that I'll take a temporary minor discomfort that prevents me from ever having to deal with it.

Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#13

Post by bawolff »

basisword wrote: post #8
sitkack wrote: post #2

PSA, everyone should be getting the HPV vaccine, regardless of age and gender. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/wh... https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/oropharyngeal-cancer.html

I know very little about this so excuse me if this is a stupid question. In my country all teenage girls have been getting the vaccine for at least the last 15-20 years. Therefore all of the women I'm likely to sleep with are vaccinated. Does it still make sense as a man to get it?

Vaccines aren't 100% effective.

I'm not sure what the effectiveness of the hpv vaccine is, but if it was 95% effective (totally made up number, i dont know what the real one is), then there is a 1 in 20 chance it wont work for someone. If both of you have the vaccine then the chance of both failing would go down to 1 in 400.

That seems worthwhile to me, given there is basically no downside.

(I guess this doesn't account for the affects of herd immunity)

Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#14

Post by chimeracoder »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #4
sitkack wrote: post #2

PSA, everyone should be getting the HPV vaccine, regardless of age and gender. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/wh... https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/oropharyngeal-cancer.html

Annoyed at how the guidance has changed on this over the years. At first it was just a narrow slice of 20 something women. Then girl teenagers. Then men and women under 30. Then under 40. If it has an association with preventing cancers, not sure why they were so reluctant to immediately open up the patient pool.

> If it has an association with preventing cancers, not sure why they were so reluctant to immediately open up the patient pool.

Because approval involves evaluating a risk-benefit tradeoff, and the benefits for those groups are wildly different, as are the risk profiles, due to the way HPV strains[0] work. If they tested against a wide and heterogenous population from the start, it would risk demonstrating insufficient effect, which would eliminate the possibility of the vaccine for everyone. Instead, by testing against the group most likely to benefit from it (women, and specifically women of the age to have no prior exposure to HPV) they can see whether the vaccine has any potential at all, and expand from there.

As it turns out, the vaccine was incredibly effective for them, and as we studied it further, it turned out that other groups which had potentially lower benefits (men, older women) or higher potential risks (teenage girls) had a risk-benefit tradeoff that still overwhelmingly supported approval for those groups.

[0] yes, plural, because there are hundrends, and the vaccines (again, plural, because there are more than one) protect against a handful of them (although that fortunately includes the strains that account for 80-90% of HPV-caused cancers

Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#16

Post by sys32768 »

I never got the HPV vaccine and am now too old. Recently I had a papilloma removed from my soft palate near my uvula. They checked it for cancer but not HPV, even though they said it was almost certainly HPV.

So for $129 I took the OraRisk HPV test which tests for 51 strains, including the ones associated with cancer, and the results came up negative.

So I maybe sort of probably don't have HPV, or may have but don't anymore. Or maybe something like that.

Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#17

Post by hermannj314 »

0cf8612b2e1e wrote: post #4
sitkack wrote: post #2

PSA, everyone should be getting the HPV vaccine, regardless of age and gender. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/wh... https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/oropharyngeal-cancer.html

Annoyed at how the guidance has changed on this over the years. At first it was just a narrow slice of 20 something women. Then girl teenagers. Then men and women under 30. Then under 40. If it has an association with preventing cancers, not sure why they were so reluctant to immediately open up the patient pool.

I am not sure why all the replies are indicating you are anti-science or anti-vax.

It is annoying to be told something from your doctor, internalize it, have your doctor suggest flu and covid vaccine for years but never HPV, and then be told on HackerNews "you should have the HPV" and now I am supposed to tell my doctor I can do his job better than him because I read something on the internet even though most doctors specifically grimace when you do that?

I think their Epic Health computer system that needs me to confirm my date of birth every 6 weeks can find some time to suggest the HPV vaccine if it is so damn medically necessary.

Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#18

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

sitkack wrote: post #2

PSA, everyone should be getting the HPV vaccine, regardless of age and gender. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/wh... https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/oropharyngeal-cancer.html

What if I'm monogamous?

Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#19

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #18
sitkack wrote: post #2

PSA, everyone should be getting the HPV vaccine, regardless of age and gender. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/wh... https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/oropharyngeal-cancer.html

What if I'm monogamous?

That's what I'm wondering as well. I've been monogamous for a decade and a half now. If that changes I'll get the vaccine, but right now if either of us had it we both do.

Re: Antiviral chewing gum to reduce influenza and herpes simplex virus transmission

#20

Post by apt-apt-apt-apt »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #18
sitkack wrote: post #2

PSA, everyone should be getting the HPV vaccine, regardless of age and gender. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HPV_vaccine https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/wh... https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/oropharyngeal-cancer.html

What if I'm monogamous?

Even if you are, your partner may not be. Or, god forbid, you could be sexually assaulted. Low, but non-zero chances.
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