To the editor: In 2009 I underwent a most cancers ordeal similar to that of Paul Thornton’s spouse. (“This cancer vaccine should spare future generations from ordeals like my wife’s,” Opinion, Dec. 28)
Mine started as a lump below my jawline that turned out to be the most important of a number of metastases from the bottom of my tongue. It was additionally brought on by the human papillomavirus, or HPV.
The remedy was brutal and mainly robbed me of a yr of life: no stable meals; ache, nausea and choking (this isn’t enjoyable). There are everlasting unwanted effects to nerves, my tongue and salivary glands.
No matter what sure politicians might consider, there’s a simple option to forestall all of this: the Gardasil and Cervarix vaccines. Administered earlier than a toddler dangers publicity by means of intercourse, they not solely defend towards the illnesses that Thornton’s spouse and I had, but additionally towards cervical, vaginal, penile and anal cancers.
I think about myself lucky to have been handled by a few of L.A.’s best physicians and with the cutting-edge know-how of the time. It was an enormous value to pay for a lifetime of regular grownup conduct, however I’m alive.
I urge dad and mom to have their children vaccinated towards this terrible scourge, as a result of, consider me, you do not need it.
David Reskin, Los Angeles
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To the editor: I used to be glad to learn Thornton’s piece sharing his spouse’s expertise and in regards to the vaccine that forestalls cancers brought on by the HPV virus. Like him, I fear a couple of vaccine skeptic heading the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies.
As a nurse practitioner, I see the implications of HPV in my observe. HPV could cause pre-cancers, requiring uncomfortable diagnostic and remedy procedures for sufferers. Generally, pre-cancers progress to most cancers.
Many have no idea that the speed of throat cancers brought on by HPV within the U.S. has surpassed the speed of cervical and different genital cancers. We’re lucky to have a protected vaccine that successfully prevents most pre-cancers and cancers brought on by HPV, sparing folks the ordeals and anguish that include it.
I counsel my sufferers day by day and extremely suggest the HPV vaccine.
Simone Cox, Rolling Hills Estates
