Hpv Vaccination

Heather Burcham, one of the leaders in the push to make HPV vaccination mandatory died Saturday in Houston Texas of the disease.

"Her pain and suffering have forever ceased," Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. He said she was "an inspiration to myself, my staff and others." In Febuary, Perry tried to make HPV vaccination mandatory for young girls entering the sixth grade.

According to Forbes, "members of the Legislature were outraged, complaining that Perry circumvented the legislative process, that the vaccine was too new and that making it mandatory could encourage young people to be sexually active. The human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer is transmitted through sexual contact."

In April, legislators passed a bill that blocked state officials from implementing Perry's order. Perry had used a video of Burcham speaking from her bed in a hospice during his speak to make his point.
"If I could help one child, take this cancer away from one child, it would mean the world to me," she said. "If they knew what I was going through, how incredibly painful that this was ... then I feel like I've done my job as a human on this earth."

Many other states have tried tom implement plans similar to the one in Texas, but Virginia is currently the only state that has signed such a mandate into a law. According to a recent report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cervical cancer claims 10 women a day in the U.S. alone, and 1 in 4 U.S. women ages 14 to 59 is infected with HPV.