Mothers are less likely to have their daughters under age 13 receive the new vaccine against human papillomavirus, even though doctors recommend it for girls at 11 or 12 years old, according to a national study from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

Over 85% of the 10,521 mothers in the study thought the vaccine was a good idea for 16- to 17-year-old girls, but only 48% intended to have their 9- to 12-year-olds vaccinated.

The vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

This study was presented at the annual meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies.

Labels: girls, sexually_transmitted_diseases, vaccine

The cover story in the March 3rd edition of Newsweek, titled "The Hunt for an Addiction Vaccine," has lots of people talking. It also marks a shift in the study of addiction recovery.

"The addict's brain is malfunctioning, as surely as the pancreas in someone with diabetes. In both cases, 'lifestyle choices' may be a contributing factor, but no one regards that as a reason to withhold insulin from a diabetic. 'We are making unprecedented advances in understanding the biology of addiction,' says David Rosenblum, a public-health professor and addiction expert at Boston University."

New scientific discoveries are helping the medical community better understand how an addicted brain functions, which means that medications could be developed to block a drug's effect on the brain. Read more at HealthNewsDigest.com.

Labels: addictions, treatment_programs, vaccine