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| HEALTH & FITNESS |
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Vaccine for cervical cancer patients How working women’s health gets damaged Health Notes
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Vaccine for cervical cancer patients We know that cough, cold, fever and diarrhoea are some of the common ailments caused by viruses. We have been immunizing our children against viral infections like polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B and chicken pox for more than a decade now. Besides these well-known diseases, there are some cancers which are also caused by viruses such as liver cancer, blood cancer and cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the cancer of the cervix which is the lower end of the uterus located at the top of the vagina in the female genital system. It ranks as the first most frequent cancer among women in India. Current estimates indicate that every year 1,34,420 women in India are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 72,825 die from the disease. Cervical cancer is caused by a virus known as human papilloma virus (HPV). There are multiple subtypes of HPV. Some of these cause warts which are not cancerous. Types 16, 18 and some other types cause cervical cancer. Among these types, 16 and 18 are responsible for about 70 per cent of the cases. They also cause most anal cancers and some vaginal, vulvar, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers. Since cervical cancer shows a complete association with HPV which is transmitted through the sexual route, the only definite way of preventing it is complete sexual abstinence because even a single sexual exposure can lead to infection. The HPV infection is not synonymous with cervical cancer as our body has a partially effective natural mechanism of clearing out the infection, but certain factors put a person at a high risk for cervical cancer. These are onset of sexual activity at a younger age (less than 18 years), child birth at a younger age (less than 20 years), multiple pregnancies, multiple sexual partners, poor general health, immunocompromised state and smoking. On the other hand, the routine use of condoms provides protection against HPV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Cervical cancer vaccine (HPV vaccine)
Vaccines contain inactivated forms of viruses or partial components of viruses which, when given to a body, produce immunity or ability to fight against the virus whenever natural infection occurs. By the same logic, cancer caused by a virus should also be preventable. HPV vaccines are now widely available for the purpose of cervical cancer prevention. The quadrivalent vaccine (Gardasil) and bivalent vaccine (Cervarix) have been approved for this purpose in more than 100 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia and the UK and other European nations. It has been included in the national immunization schedule for teenage and pre-teenage girls in the US, the UK and Australia. The Drugs Controller-General of India licensed the use of these vaccines in 2008. Both the bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines protect against the infection of HPV subtypes 16 and 18 that account for about 70 per cent of HPV-related cervical cancers. In addition, the quadrivalent vaccine also protects against HPV types 6 and 11 that are responsible for about 90 per cent of the genital warts. The HPV vaccine does not treat the existing HPV infection or pre-existing cancerous or precancerous lesions.
Vaccination target group
In the US, the quadrivalent HPV vaccine is also recommended for males in the age group of 9- 26 years as it offers protection against genital warts and anogenital cancers. In India, this vaccine is not yet recommended for males.
Long-term efficacy
Since the cervical cancer vaccine is a relatively newer vaccine, studies regarding the duration of efficacy are ongoing. Till date, these vaccines have been shown to be efficacious for 6 to 7.2 years without any need for boosters and are expected to be beneficial over a longer period. Selective benefit:
These vaccines can protect against cervical cancer and pre-cancer caused by HPV types 16 and 18 only. They do not provide effective cross-protection against these lesions caused by other high risk types. Since 70 per cent of cervical cancer cases are caused by these two types, hence the efficacy of the vaccine. Cervical cancer screening:
Cervical cancer can be effectively diagnosed in the pre-cancerous stage by periodic targeted gynaecological examination and Pap smear which should be started after the age of 21 years, within three years after the beginning of sexual activity. This can easily be done in most centres in our country in a cost-effective manner. Since HPV vaccination does not provide complete protection against cervical cancer, the screening needs to be continued as per schedule irrespective of the vaccination. The mantra for good health is “Prevention is better than cure”. For cervical cancer we have two types of prevention:
Both processes are independent of each other and one does not replace the other. The high cost of the HPV vaccine (approximately Rs 9000 for three doses) is a major barrier for the routine administration of the vaccine. According to the current statistics, it is a safe and approved option but we need more time to be sure of its long-term efficacy. The writer is Consultant Gynaecologist, Government Medical College & Hospital, Chandigarh, and working closely with the Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, on cancer. |
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How working women’s health gets damaged In the average Indian perspective, if we take a look at the working women's life story, we will find many similarities though the characters may be different. For the convenience of description, let us call one such woman as Poonam Sharma. Married for the last 15 years to a man who is employed in an insurance company, she herself works as an executive in a private sector bank. She wakes up early in the morning and starts her day by rushing straight into the kitchen in order to make three different sets of breakfasts. One for her two school-going children, the second for herself and her husband, and the third for her ailing mother-in-law, who is a diabetic. At work she leads a team of young working women and takes care of meeting targets of lending loans and studying in-depth various papers and documents. Mrs Poonam's working hours stretch to 6 in the evening, and when she reaches home she finds her children waiting to have some guidance from her about their studies and homework. And then it is the time to prepare dinner. By 11 she finally goes to bed after arranging the things which would help her to resume her monotonous life next morning. Even on Saturdays and Sundays, when she is not at work, Poonam finds herself busier in chores like cleansing the kitchen and the house, arranging cloths and almirahs, shopping for grocery and meeting some social responsibilities. This whole exercise has started taking a heavy toll of her own health because it is this superwoman who has always ignored the needs of her body for a good diet, some exercise, adequate rest and personal time. There are more and more such working women who find that by the time they realise what is happening to them, it becomes too late. Though exact data is not available, it is a fact that most working women avoid routine check-ups for lack of time. The number of women suffering from lifestyle diseases has gone up alarmingly, and a majority of them are urban professionals. Most of these career women marry late, have their children in their mid-30s, and the high stress and competitive work atmosphere coupled with too demanding domestic life make them prone to hormonal imbalances and many other systemic diseases. On the psychological level also, the multipronged stress makes a dent in a woman's mind. Psychiatrists tell that the rate of depression in working women is twice that found in men, and the reason can be found in the load of overlapping roles as housewives, mothers and workers. When such tasks are mentally and physically demanding with little satisfaction, monetary gain and social rewards, they to produce symptoms of poor self-esteem, exhaustion, irritability, headache and insomnia in the majority of women. Hyperthyroidism, calcium deficiency and, more recently, vitamin D insufficiency have been seen to be prevalent far more in females than in males. In working women, problems like low backache, weight gain, hyperacidity, constipation and vague body-aches can be attributed to long sitting hours, inadequate or wrong diet, excessive intake of tea or coffee in office and lack of exercise. A bad posture and working uninterruptedly for long hours on the computer is a known reason for the increasing incidents of cervical spondylosis among office-going women.
Tips for working women
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Sleep apnoea may offer unusual protection for
heart attack patients
Washington: People who suffer from breathing disorders such as sleep apnoea are usually at higher risk for cardiovascular disease. But findings of a new study carried out by scientists from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have shown that some heart attack patients can actually benefit from mild to moderate sleep-disordered breathing. Apnea and other types of sleep-disordered breathing can boost the numbers and functions of rare cells that help to repair and build new blood vessels, according to the Technion’s Dr Lena Lavie and her colleagues. They say the findings could help predict which patients are at a greater health risk after a heart attack, and may even suggest ways to rebuild damaged heart tissue. — ANI Active people likely
to live longer
Melbourne: Leading an active, extrovert life like that of a thrill seeker might lead to a life beyond 90s, a new study has found. A variation of a much-studied gene involved in transmission of dopamine, a key component of the brain’s reward-and-learning system, was found to be far more frequent among the very old, News.com.au reported. Professor Robert Moyzis of the University of California, Irvine, said that the variant might not extend lifespan directly. Instead, it appears to predispose those who bear it to a more vigorous lifestyle. The human subjects in the study came from Laguna Woods, part of a group involved in the Leisure World Cohort Study that began in 1981. It included people who were 90 or older in 2003.
— ANI
Getting ‘appropriately angry’ can add two years to your life!
Washington: Losing your cool could be good for you, as according to a new German study, people who express their anger live two years longer, on an average, than those who bottle up their rage. After analyzing 6,000 patients, researchers found that those who internalised their angry feelings ran the risk of an elevated pulse, high blood pressure, and other serious ailments, CBS News reported. Dr Janet Taylor, a psychiatrist who specialises in stress management, explained how to express appropriate anger to reap its benefits to the channel. She said that people who keep it in, who get depressed, certainly have a higher risk for having cardiovascular disease, like heart attacks and even sudden death.
— ANI
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A cervical cancer vaccine has been on offer in India since 2008, but the queries regarding its usefulness still prevail. This article aims to throw some light upon this vaccine regarding its status in healthcare, proposed benefits and its shortcomings in the scenario today.