Steps for women's health

The April 2 email from University Health Services (UHS) contained some bad news about the future availability and price of birth control supplies for women. But it was cheering to read that UHS now offers the new human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, Gardasil, and that the Student Health Plan (SHP) will cover 80 percent of the cost of the vaccine, a fairly expensive course of three shots over six months. Given HPV's prevalence and the vaccine's potential to prevent deadly cancers linked to HPV, however, UHS does not go far enough. It should try to find a way to cover the vaccine's entire cost for SHP subscribers and subsidize the vaccine even for women with private health insurance so that they too can be protected.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), some private insurance providers do not cover the vaccine. It will be difficult for some young women to ask their parents to help cover the cost of the vaccine even if they can use private insurance. HPV is a sexually transmitted disease, spread by genital contact; some parents could construe a young woman's request for the vaccine as an admission that their daughter is sexually active. The efforts of conservative religious groups to link the HPV vaccine to worries about promiscuity only make the issue more delicate.

The best reason for UHS to make Gardasil accessible to Princeton women is the vaccine's potential to prevent cancer. The vaccine is 95 to 100 percent effective in preventing the diseases linked to the four types of HPV covered by the vaccine, including types of cervical cancer which can be fatal. More than 50 percent of people will have HPV at some time in their lives, and HPV is most common in young men and women of college age: 74 percent of new cases occur among 15 to 24-year-olds. The grimmest news is that young people cannot be tested for HPV nor can HPV transmission be prevented by condom use. Intercourse isn't even necessary: Any genital skin-to-skin contact could pass on strains of HPV with the potential to cause genital warts and cancer. The new vaccine is a safe and effective shield against the diseases linked to HPV; it's up to UHS to make it affordable and accessible.

Within a decade, UHS will probably provide very few HPV vaccinations; most incoming students will have received the vaccine at the CDC's recommended age of 11 or 12. But right now, the generation of young women who grew up without the vaccine is unprotected and at risk. UHS can and should find a way to help protect Princeton women — all of them.