Immigrants No Longer Required To Get HPV Vaccine
6 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // November 18th, 2009 // 8:22 am
One more setback for Merck. Immigrant girls and women must no longer get vaccinated against the human papillomavirus in order to get their green cards. Starting Dec. 14, the HPV vaccine won’t be on the list of immunizations female immigrants ages 11 to 26 must receive before becoming legal permanent residents, the Associated Press reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made the change last Friday, more than a year after the US Department of Homeland Security began requiring girls and young women who immigrate to the US to get vaccinated with Gardasil, which at the time was the only HPV vaccine available in the US. Recently, the FDA approved GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix. A coalition of more than 100 immigrant, health and women’s advocacy groups challenged the requirement, saying it was unfair to require the HPV vaccine for immigrants but not for most US citizens, the AP writes.
Now, the CDC will require immunizations when there is a public health need at the time a person immigrates or changes their status to green card holder. “More than half of the immigrants who come to the U.S. seeking opportunity are women,” Silvia Henriquez, executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, says in a statement. “We thank the CDC for restoring their dignity and reproductive justice.”
By the way, the CDC policy change also means the Zoster vaccine to protect against shingles won’t be required of immigrants 60 or older. “They are not easily transmissible,” Katrin Kohl, deputy director in the CDC’s division of global migration and quarantine, tells the AP. “They don’t fit into the whole public health spirit of outbreak prevention.” And who sells the Zoster vaccine? Merck.
harpy
good.
Lisa Van Syckel
And folks wanted to mandate this vaccine for little girls here in America.
Joana Ramos
Ed,
Thanks for letting readers know about this positive development. Your prior article about the start of the then little-known new requirement played an important role in informing the advocacy community & allies.
Keep up the good work,
Joana
Joana Ramos
Adding to my previous comment, you might want to change the photo of the “people crossing” sign that accompanies the article. These kinds of road signs are used in border areas, to alert drivers that people may be crossing the streets in non-pedestrian areas. The implication is that the people may be undocumented immigrants. Immigrants coming with visas arrive via the various modes of public transportation. Images which may be perceived to depict immigrants as those entering the US clandestinely are offensive, which I know was not your intent. How about a picture of a visa stamp?
Joana
Evelyn Pringle
This is great news. On another note, now that New Jersey has a different political regime, is there any chance of freeing New Jersey kids from being walking, talking pin cushions for profit under the mandated vaccines rules there?
Justice in Michigan
A small coda on this. In Michigan, as in several other states, it was the liberal Dems–in the interest of women’s health–who were the majority supporters of mandating Gardasil vaccination. It was “social conservatives”–centered around the idea that vaccination would be increase early sexual experience and reduce parental oversight–who were the majority in opposition. “Women in Government” and others associated with the Merck lobby in Texas played some role, but not a primary one.
I believe there is a lesson here for those of us inclined to make simplistic divisions of the political universe.