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Nov 26, 2008 8:33 pm US/Eastern
I-Team: Green Cards And Gardasil
Female Immigrants required to get HPV Shot before they can get a green card
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Merck Gardiasil, human papillomavirus vaccine,
AP
It may turn out to be the latest wrinkle in controversy surrounding the Gardasil vaccine, which is touted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a key weapon to fight the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and ultimately cervical cancer. Girls aged 11 to 26 looking to get a green card are now required to have had an HPV shot. The requirement quietly went into effect in August but many pediatricians and immigration attorneys are just now learning of it.
Pediatrician Dr. Eric Rydland found the news concerning when he first learned the vaccine is now mandated for those looking to live in the United States.
"It made me angry," said Rydland, who believes it is too soon to know enough about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine to mandate it for anyone.
"It just makes no sense to me to mandate things that will cost someone, not only money, but may cost them their health," Rydland told
CBS4 Chief Investigative Reporter Michele Gillen. The three recommended doses of the vaccine can cost as much as $1000, although the new requirement for immigrants demands only proof that one dose was received.
"Isn't it wonderful that people coming into this country will be protected against cervical cancer, that's a terrific public health goal," said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Schaffner sits on the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which recommended the HPV vaccine for American girls as young as 11.
Parents across the nation successfully fought attempts to mandate it for their school-age daughters.
In an exclusive interview with Gillen, one of the leading researchers from Gardasil's clinical trials, Dr. Diane Harper, spoke out against mandating the vaccine, telling Gillen, "I see red lights flashing. This is a real danger zone."
But because Gardasil, which is manufactured by Merck, was added to the CDC's list of recommended vaccines, it automatically joins the list of vaccines mandated for foreigners. It appears that every girl aged 11 to 26 immigrating to America must get it.
"There's a paradox and it's a little bit of the law of unintended effects," said Dr. Schaffner
But it's a worry that Attorney Marisa Casablanca, who has practiced immigration law in South Florida for 20 years, said puts her in an uncomfortable position.
"As an immigration attorney, I am put in a strange situation because I have to justify something that really does not make sense," said Casablanca.
She added, "So it concerns me that we are immigrating people and not giving them a choice, [asking them,] you want the green card or not, and forcing them to vaccinate these little girls."
Dr. Rydland suspects the mandate that affects only immigrant girls and not U.S. citizens could trigger a negative backlash overseas.
"What this is going to do is cause ill will among other countries" said Dr. Rydland.
But Dr. Schaffner, who has served on a Merck advisory committee, thinks it gives those foreign girls a leg up in potentially battling cervical cancer.
"I am unabashedly delighted that we are going to protect all these young girls and young women."
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