Some of the worst reporting on health surrounds the relative and absolute risks and benefits about medicines. Case in point is the HPV vaccine. As our friend NYU internist and author Mark Siegel points out, the reason for making the vaccine mandatory has less to do with reducing cancer, important on its own, but also genital herpes, abnormal pap smears and other public health problems...
"The problem with combating the human papilloma virus in the United States isn't only cervical cancer or precancerous cells. The problem also is an epidemic of sexually transmitted genital warts. The CDC says HPV causes more than 6 million new cases of genital warts in this country every year.
There are many cases in medical history where vaccination has proved extremely effective in promoting public health even in the face of possible side effects."
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/opinion/ny-opsie205101066feb20,0,3529854.story?coll=ny-opinion-print
The coverage of a recent data dredging effort looking at the RELATIVE RISKS of taking different painkillers and high blood pressures for the most part failed to make the qualifications the researchers did. (This was a study of heavy, obese males in the main who were frequent users of all sorts of pain killers against non users that did not control for any other medications) The increase in risk of 33 percent was an increase in risk from 1 percent to 1.36 percent. Leave to scaremonger at the Washington Post
Shankar Vedantam to write a story with the headline : Doctors Warned About Common Drugs for Pain NSAIDs Tied to Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke... Aargh..
But Seniorjournal.com saves the day with straightforward reporting that just gives the facts without the unscientific spin that shady Shankar always seems to give to his stories:
Older Men Regularly Taking Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers have Risk of High Blood Pressure
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Health/2007/7-02-26-OlderMenRegularly.htm
"The problem with combating the human papilloma virus in the United States isn't only cervical cancer or precancerous cells. The problem also is an epidemic of sexually transmitted genital warts. The CDC says HPV causes more than 6 million new cases of genital warts in this country every year.
There are many cases in medical history where vaccination has proved extremely effective in promoting public health even in the face of possible side effects."
http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/opinion/ny-opsie205101066feb20,0,3529854.story?coll=ny-opinion-print
The coverage of a recent data dredging effort looking at the RELATIVE RISKS of taking different painkillers and high blood pressures for the most part failed to make the qualifications the researchers did. (This was a study of heavy, obese males in the main who were frequent users of all sorts of pain killers against non users that did not control for any other medications) The increase in risk of 33 percent was an increase in risk from 1 percent to 1.36 percent. Leave to scaremonger at the Washington Post
Shankar Vedantam to write a story with the headline : Doctors Warned About Common Drugs for Pain NSAIDs Tied to Risk of Heart Attack, Stroke... Aargh..
But Seniorjournal.com saves the day with straightforward reporting that just gives the facts without the unscientific spin that shady Shankar always seems to give to his stories:
Older Men Regularly Taking Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers have Risk of High Blood Pressure
http://www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Health/2007/7-02-26-OlderMenRegularly.htm
