The vaccine against cervical cancer is on everyone's lips. Provision is not only very important in this case.
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Experts warn: Both children and adults are too badly protected against dangerous infections.
Cervical cancer: Vaccination also makes sense for adult women
Cervical cancer affects 6, 200 women every year in Germany. It is caused by the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which is transmitted through sexual contact. The researcher Harald zur Hausen, who discovered the virus and made the vaccine possible, was honored with the 2008 Nobel Prize. 70 percent of all adults carry the virus. For young girls triple vaccination is recommended. But even women of prime age can benefit from it. A tumor can develop for years after infection. The HPV vaccine is therefore useful at any age. In adult women, the health insurances pay the vaccine in individual cases.
However, there are no long-term studies that give precise information about how long the protection after vaccination exists. So far, there are studies that promise vaccine protection over four and a half years. According to current knowledge, a vaccine-renewal after ten years should be necessary.
But not only in the case of cervical cancer prevention is very important. Many parents believe that classic childhood illnesses such as mumps, measles or whooping cough are not dangerous, children have to go through these infections. But that's not true, warns the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) at the Berlin Robert Koch Institute. For example, mumps can lead to infertility in boys, in whooping cough, the lungs can be infected, in measles, for example, can cause a dangerous meningeal inflammation.
Danger to adults
Only after a few "teething troubles" you have a natural protection (for example, measles, mumps). For unprotected adults, most infectious diseases continue to be dangerous. In polio, diphtheria, measles (every 500th adult gets a meningitis), rubella (in pregnancy, organ damage to the unborn child is possible) Mumps or whooping cough can be serious complications - the older you are, the more violent. In contrast, the risk of serious vaccine complications is negligible, only 1 to 1 million.
The vaccination program
According to the STIKO recommendations, parents can have their children vaccinated against the 12 most important infectious diseases:
- diphtheria
- Tetanus
- Whooping cough (pertussis)
- Bacterial infection Haemophilus influenzae type b (can cause blood poisoning, for example)
- Poliomyelitis
- Hepatitis B (liver inflammation)
- measles
- mumps
- rubella
- chickenpox
- Meningococci (meningitis)
- Pneumococci (lung inflammation, but also eg meningeal inflammation, blood poisoning)
Tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough must be refreshed at the age of 5 or 6 years. Second refresher: Between 9 and 17 years (at this age, the polio vaccine must be refreshed!).
Check vaccination
In many adults, especially the refreshments in the youth are missing. Or in the case of diphtheria and tetanus, refreshing every 10 years in adult age. Therefore, for example, women over the age of 50 should have their tetanus protection checked, as this group is the worst vaccine against tetanus.
The STIKO advises: Go to the family doctor and have your vaccination certificate checked. Vaccinations recommended by STIKO are paid by the health insurer, the doctor can make up for them immediately or after the vaccine has been ordered. It may be that he has to pay 10 euros for a consultation. For children, there is no practice fee for vaccinations.
Basically, parents are free to have their children vaccinated or not, as there is no vaccination requirement in Germany.
All vaccinations are recommendations. There are also controversial views of vaccine critics on this subject, which you can read here, for example. The Federal Center for Health Education provides independent information on vaccination.
