In the meantime, here’re some relevant links, some of which throw the baton to you. If you’re feeling like revolting, now’s the time…

• Block The Bridge, Block The Bill, 9th October: “On Sunday October 9th, join UK Uncut on Westminster Bridge and help block the bill. On one side of Westminster Bridge is Parliament. On 7th September, MPs in the Commons voted for the end of the NHS as we know it. On the opposite side of the bridge is St Thomas’ Hospital, one of Britain’s oldest medical institutions. If the bill passes, hospitals like St Thomas’ will be sold to private corporations, the staff put on private payrolls and beds given over to private patients. Despite the government’s lies, this bill represents the wholesale privatization of the NHS and, with it, the destruction of the dream of comprehensive healthcare provided equally to all. We will not let a coalition of millionaire politicians and private health lobbyists destroy our NHS. Be on Westminster Bridge for 1pm on October 9th and together let’s block this bill from getting to our hospitals.”

  I work at one of the hospitals UKUncut are talking about. It looks no better from the inside. We’re having our birthday party < 48 hours before (you're totally invited! see below!), but I will be hauling myself out of bed for this. Readers, join Team BadRep as we revolt against both Torygeddon and our inevitable shared hangover in one giant last stand.

• TUC March For The Alternative: 2nd October
• All Out: our new favourite campaign. “We are organizing online and on the ground to build a world where every person can live freely and be embraced for who they are. Gay, lesbian, bi, transgender or straight, we need you to go All Out to build this historic movement for equality.” The page on Alice N’Kom, Cameroonian attorney and activist, is particularly inspiring: “I’m 66, and in ten years of defending LGBT people in Cameroon, it has never been this bad.”
• WomanKind Worldwide’s Overseas Aid Mythbuster: “Print off this page, put it in your bag and next time you hear someone complain about the UK giving money overseas challenge them with the facts.”
• Say Yes to Gay YA: authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith on young adult fiction and sexuality: “The overwhelming white straightness of the YA sf and fantasy sections may have little to do with what authors are writing, or even with what editors accept. Perhaps solid manuscripts with LGBTQ protagonists rarely get into mainstream editors’ hands at all, because they are been rejected by agents before the editors see them. How many published novels with a straight white heroine and a lesbian or black or disabled best friend once had those roles reversed, before an agent demanded a change? This does not make for better novels. Nor does it make for a better world.”
• COME TO OUR BIRTHDAY PARTY ON OCTOBER 7! We wanna meet you! Find out more and RSVP here!

Gardasil vial, via Wikimedia Commons. This is what we

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections. HPV symptoms include outbreaks of genital warts, and several of the strains (primarily types 16 and 18, which account for roughly 1 in 20 infections according to CDC statistic) are responsible for the majority of cervical cancer cases. Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths amongst women worldwide, particularly in developing nations.

So when vaccines that protect against the high-risk strains of HPV became available in 2008 it was a good thing, yes? A concerted vaccination program would reduce new infections, see a decrease in cervical cancer diagnoses over the next 15-20 years, and save millions of pounds in public health spending on pap smears, right? Well, sort of. The issue here is that there are two vaccines available, Gardasil from Merck and Cervarix from GlaxoSmithKline. Whilst both protect against strains 16 and 18, Cervarix does not provide any protection against the non-cancerous strains responsible for genital warts. Gardasil, by contrast, also protects against strains 6 and 11, which cause 90% of genital wart cases. Gardasil also has a rather high list price of £240 per person, whereas the makers of Cervarix have significantly undercut their list price in an unreleased contract with the NHS.

In countries such as Australia, that have taken up Gardasil, there has been a 75% decrease in new cases of genital warts over the last three years; the UK, over the same period, has seen no difference in the number of new cases. Whilst women aged 16-19 are the group most affected by this, the issue is one that matters to everybody: greater uptake of the vaccine increases herd immunity, protecting those who haven’t been vaccinated as well (for the same time period cases in unvaccinated heterosexual males fell by one third in countries using Gardasil).

So, and this is the problem, we’re now offered a vaccine that provides no protection against genital warts, and almost no information about the alternative (I could find just one mention of Gardasil on the NHS’s HPV vaccination page here ). Those in the know are seeking out Gardasil through private clinics, whilst the majority, arguably including those most at risk of infection, are left in the dark.

“We, as consultants in sexual health, have been told to say nothing publicly that would damage the current vaccine programme, as the Cervarix vaccine has already been purchased. We have had to be circumspect in public but in private we have all purchased Gardasil for our own children and advised colleagues to do the same.” – Dr. Colm O’Mahony and Dr. Steve Taylor

This is leading us into a split system whereby those who can are taking the greater protection of Gardasil, and everyone else is getting Cervarix. This is, I think, neither a reasonable nor efficient use of NHS funding, and somewhat gives the lie to health secretary Andrew Lansley’s promise of “no decision about you without you.”

Treatment of genital warts costs the NHS £31 million annually and takes trained staff away from time that could be spent on other serious conditions. It is difficult to gauge how this balances against the savings from sticking with the cheaper Cervarix, because the NHS will not release the details of their contract with GSK. With the contract coming up for renewal now is the time when Lansley needs to reveal the details of the contract, involve the public in the decision, and provide more accessible information regarding Gardasil.

Why is this relevant on a feminist blog? Fair access to this information (and related sexual health matters) is vitally important to women (and indeed to men). We all need to be equipped to not only make the best decisions for our own sexual health but also to campaign for those in the most at risk groups — who are currently being let down by the lack of information provided by the NHS. The choice of vaccine is an important issue that will effect tens of thousands of lives every year, and it is one the public needs to be involved in.

(Here’s the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV’s press release on the issue, which has links to some relevant papers.)