HPV vaccination in context: A view from France

Three Shots at Prevention: The HPV Vaccine and the Politics of Medicine's Simple Solutions

Volumn , Issue , 2010, Pages 270-292

  Löwy, Ilana ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84894107393     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: None     Document Type: Chapter

References (77)

1. Abby Lippman, Madeline Boscoe, and Carol Scurfield, "Rebuttal: Do You Approve Spending $300 Million on HPV Vaccination?" Canadian Family Physician 54(2008):343.
2. George N. Papanicolaou and Herbert F. Traut, "The Diagnostic Value of Vaginal Smears in Carcinoma of the Uterus", American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 42(1941):193-206;
3. George N. Papanicolaou and Herbert F. Traut, Diagnosis of Uterine Cancer by Vaginal Smear (New York: Commonwealth Fund, 1943).
4. L. H. Lombard, M. Middletown, S. Warren, and O. Gates, "The Use of Vaginal Smearsas a Screening Test", New En gland Journal of Medicine 238(1948):867-871.
5. Charlotte A. Jones, Theodore Neustaaedeter, and Locke L. MacKenzie, "The Value of Vaginal Smears in the Diagnosis of Early Malignancy", American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 49(1945):159-168.
6. On screening for risk, see Robert Aronowitz, "Situating Health Risks", in American Health Care History and Policy: Putting the Past Back In, ed. R. Burns, R. Stevens, and C. Rosenberg (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006), 153-165; and see chapter 2 of this volume.
7. Eftychia Vayena, "Cancer Detectors: An International History of the Pap Test and Cervical Cancer Screening, 1928-1970" (Ph. D. diss., University of Minnesota, 1999). Vayena's dissertation is an excellent source of information on ACS's role in the implementation of the Pap smear in the United States. Documents of the Medical Women Federation, series SA/MWF, file F.13/3, Archives and Manuscripts Department, Wellcome Library, London.
8. On the history of the Pap smear in the United Kingdom, see Elisabeth Toon, "Demand and Supply, Success and Failure: Managing the Provision of Cervical Cancer Screen ing in the 1960s U K", paper presented at the conference "How Cancer Changed", Paris, April 2-4, 2009. Press conference of the minister of health, Kenneth Robinson, on cervical cytology, Oct. 21, 1966. Documents of the Medical Women Federation, file F.13/4, Wellcome Library.
9. Vicky Singleton, "Actor Networks and Ambivalence: General Practitioners in the UK Cervical Screening Program", Social Studies of Science 23, no. 2(1993):227-264;
10. Vicky Singleton, "Stabilizing Instabilities: The Role of the Laboratory in the United Kingdom Cervical Screening Program", in Differences in Medicine: Unraveling Practices, Techniques, and Bodies, ed. Marc Berg and Anne Marie Mol (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998), 86-103.
11. Julian Peto, Clare Gilham, Olivia Fletcher, and Fiona E. Matthews, "The Cervical Cancer Epidemic That Screening Has Prevented in the UK", Lancet 364, no. 9430(2004):249-256.
12. M. F. G. Murphy, M. J. Campbell, and P. O. Goldblatt", Twenty Years' Screening for Cancer of the Uterine Cervix in Great Britain, 1964-84: Further Evidence of Its Ineffectiveness", Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 42, no. 1(1988):49-53;
13. "Cancer of the Cervix: Death by Incompetence" (editorial), Lancet, Aug. 17, 1985, 363-364;
14. Angela R. Raffle, B. Alden, and E. D. Mackenzie, "Detection Rates for Abnormal Cervical Screens: What Are We Screening For?" Lancet 345, no. 8963(1995):1495-1473;
15. Ruth Etzioni and David B. Thomas, "Modeling the Effect of Screening for Cervical Cancer on the Population", Lancet 364, no. 9444(2004):224-226;
16. Angela E. Raffle and M. Quinn, "Harms and Benefits of Screening to Prevent Cervical Cancer", Lancet 364, no. 9444(2004):1483-1484;
17. Michael F. Murphy and Rachel Neale, "Harms and Benefits of Screening to Prevent Cervical Cancer", Lancet 364, no. 9444(2004):1484-1485.
18. D. R. Brunet, in the name of the working group on cervical cancer screening, "Rapport au sujetde l'organization d'une campagne de dépistage du cancer du col de l'utér us en France", Ministère de la Sant é, Direction Générale de la Santé, Commi ssion du Cancer de Conseil Permanent d'Hygiène, Nov. 24, 1976, Inserm Archives, folder titled "Commission du Cancer"
19. R. Laumonier and C. Marsan, "Rapport sur la formation, les activités et les responsabilités des cytotechniciens", Ministère de la Santé, Direction Générale de la Santé, Commission du Cancer de Conseil Permanent d'Hygiène, June 1976, Inserm Archives, folder titled "Commission du Cancer"
20. A. Sicard, "L'introduction des frottis cervico-vaginaux en France", Bulletin de l'Académie de Médicine 180, no. 5(1996):1109-1113;
21. A. Garnier, C. Exbrayat, M. Bolla, et al., "Une campagne de dépistage de cancer du col avec des frottis vaginaux", Bulletin de Cancer 84, no. 8(1997):791-795.
22. Nora Liberetto, "Dépistage du cancer du col: Le point de vue des médecins généralistes" (master's thesis, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, 2005).
23. G. Dubois, "Cytologic Screening for Cervix Cancer: Each Year or Each 3 Years", European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecol ogy, and Reproductive Medicine 65, no. 1(1996):57-59.
24. Institut National du Cancer, Bilan Plan Cancer 2003-2006: Dépistage: Des avantages quantitatives et qualitatives (Paris: Institut National du Cancer, 2006). Institut du Cancer experts found the uptake of Pap smears in France unacceptably low; however, the incidence of cervical cancer in France is not higher than in other Western European countries or in the United States.
25. George Weisz, "A Specialist Regulation in France during the First Half of the Twentieth - Century", Social History of Medicine 15(2002):457-480;
26. George Weisz, Divide and Conquer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
27. Liberetto, "Dépistage du cancer du col"
28. C. Chan Chee, M. Bessaat, and V. Kovess, "Les facteurs associés avec dépistage du cancer de col d'utérus", Révue de l'Epidémiologie et de la Santé Publique 53(2005):69-75.
29. L. Remontet, J. Estève, A. M. Bouvier, et al., "L'incidence et la mortalité du cancer en France, 1978-2000", Révue de l'Epidémiologie et de la Santé Publique 51(2003):3-30.
30. J. C. Boulanger, R. Fauvet, S. Urratiaguer, et al., "H istoire cytologique descancers du col utérin diagnostiqués en France en 2006", Gynécologie Obstétrique et Fertilité 35, no. 9(2007):764-771.
31. J. L. Brun, R. Dachez, P. Mathé, et al., "Prévention du cancer de col d'utérus: Recommandation pour la pratique clinique", Journées Nationals de CNGOF (College National des Gynécologues et Obstétriciens Français), Paris, Dec. 12, 2007, 369-406. The College de Gynécologues also criticized overtreatment of low-grade cervical lesions. In 2004, 3, 693 women underwent conization, and there were 139 hysterectomies for low-grade (CIN/1) cervical lesions, although the risk of progression of such lesions to invasive cancer was estimated as 0.15% to 0.26%.
32. C. Bergeron, J. G. Breugelmans, S. Bouée, et al., "Coĉt du dépistage et de la prise en charge des lésions précancéreuses du col utérin en France", Gynécologie Obstétrique et Fertilité 34, no. 11(2006):1036-1042;
33. Patrick Arveux, Stève Bénard, Stéphane Bouée, et al., "Coût de la prise en charge du ca ncer invasif du col de l'utér us en France", Bulletin du Cancer 94, no. 2(2007):219-224.
34. A study of women diagnosed with invasive cervical tumors revealed that while two-thirds had not had regular Pap smears or had been underscreened, 27% had been labeled normal in the previous three years, data that point to insufficiency of screening. Boulanger, Fauvet, Urratiaguer, et al., "Histoire cytologique des cancers"
35. Laurent Greilsamer, Le proces du sang contaminé (Paris: La Decouverte, 1992);
36. Pascale Robert Diard, "Hormone de croissance: Le procès d'un scandale sanitaire", Le Monde, Feb. 6, 2008.
37. Francis Chateauraynaud and Didier Thorny analyzed the ways "scandals" and "alerts" shaped reor ga ni za tion of the French health system in the late twentieth century. F. Chateauraynaud and D. Thorny, Les sombres précurseurs: Une sociologie pragmatique de l'alerte et de risque (Paris: Editions EHESS, 1999).
38. For a discussion of balancing different kinds of risk when making decisions about obligatory vaccination, see, e.g., Sydney A. Halpern, Lesser Harms: The Morality of Risk in Medical Research (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004).
39. Sanford R. K. Kimmel, "Vaccine Adverse Events: Separating Myth from Reality", American Family Physician 66, no. 11(2002):2113-2120.
40. Histories of vaccination in the United States and in Europe are different. In Europe the existence of national health systems makes obligatory vaccination rules less compelling. James Colgrove, State of Immunity: The Politics of Vaccination in Twentieth-Century America (Berkeley: Un iversit y of California Press, 2006); see also chapters 1, 9, and 11 in this volume.
41. Jennifer Stanton and Virginia Berridge, "Vertical Ancestries and Horizontal Risks: Hepatitis B and AIDS", in Heredity and Infection: The History of Disease Transmission, ed. Jean Paul Gaudillière and Ilana Löwy (London: Routledge, 2001), 311-326.
42. By contrast, the (voluntary) vaccination of newborns was less successful: in 1994-97, only between 24% and 27% newborn children were vaccinated each year. Bernard Bégaud, Jan François Dartigues, Françoise Degos, et al., "Rapport de la Mission d'experts sur la politique de vaccination contre l'hépatite B en France", Feb. 15, 2002, Imprimerie de Ministère de la Santé, Paris. This report can be found at www.infectiologie.com/site/medias/-⋯/vaccins/dartigues.pdf (accessed Dec. 23, 2009).
43. "Vaccination hépatite B", recommendation, Oct. 1, 1998, French Ministry of Health, Paris.
44. Alberto Ascherio, Shumin Zhang, Miguel Hernan, et al., "Hepatitis B Vaccination and the Risk of Multiple Sclerosis", New En gland Journal of Medicine 344(2001):327-332.
45. Bégaud, Dartigues, Degos, et al., "Rapport de la mission d'experts"
46. A May 2000 statement from the French Health Ministry admitted already the possibility of a weak risk of demyelination following hepatitis B vaccination, especially in "susceptible people." Communication, Secretariat d'Etat à la Santé, March 6, 2000. The text of this message can be found at www.doctissimo.fr/html/sante/⋯2000/⋯/sa-1748-hepatb.htm (accessed Dec. 23, 2009).
47. The majority (but not the totality) of recent publications did not find statistically meaningful connections between vaccination and neurological diseases. These publications point nevertheless to a persisting suspicion that such links may exist in "predisposed" (and, as of now, impossible-to-identify) indiv iduals. E.g., Frank De Stephano, Thomas Verstraen, Lisa Jackson, et al., "Vaccination and Risk of Central Nervous System Demyelinating Diseases in Adults", Archives of Neurology 60(2003):504-509;
48. Robert Nasmith and Anne Cross, "Does Hepatitis B Vaccine Cause Multiple Sclerosis?" Neurology 63(2004):772-773;
49. Yann Mikaeloff, Guillama Caridade, Meanie Rossier, et al., "Hepatitis B Vaccination and the Risk of Childhood Onset Multiple Sclerosis", Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 161, no. 12(2007):1176-1182.
50. Yannick Comenge and Marc Girard, "Multiple Sclerosis and Hepatitis B Vaccination: Adding the Credibility of Molecular Biology to an Unusual Level of Clinical and Epidemiological Evidence", Medical Hypothesis 66(2006):84-86.
51. M. Brodin, president, public hearing, "Vaccination contre le virus de l'hépatite B et sclérose en plaques: L'état des lieux", INSERM and AFSSAPS, Nov. 2004.
52. France has a recent law on "faultless compensation" of medical errors, passed as a result of the "contaminated blood" scandal, but its implementation is very uneven.
53. Bulletin Hebrodmadaire d'Epidémiologie, Dec. 25, 2007.
54. Marianne Enault, "Hépatite B: Le Vaccin en process", Le Journal du Dimanche, Jan. 31, 2008.
55. Segolene De Larquier, "Vaccin contre l'hépatite B: Les responsables des deux laboratoires mis en examin", Le Point, Jan. 31, 2008.
56. Ilana Löwy, "On Hybridizations, Networks, and New Disciplines: The Pasteur Institute and the Development of Microbiology in France", Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 25, no. 5(1994):655-688.
57. Didier Hoch and Michael Watson, "Gardasil®, le vaccin qui peut prévenir le cancer du col de l'utérus a reçu une AMM europènne", Sanofi Pasteur, Sept. 28, 2006, teleconference of Sanofi Pasteur, available at www.sanofi-aventis.com/⋯/060928-PDF-GARDASIL- slides-media-tcm29-15674.pdf (accessed Dec. 23, 2009).
58. Avis du Conseil Supérieur de l'Hygiène Publique de France (CSHPF) Dec. 5, 2006, available at the CSHPF site, www.hcsp. fr/explore.cgi/avisrapportsdomaine ?ae = avisrapportsdomaine & clefdomaine (accessed Dec. 23, 2009). The mortality rates from cervical cancer in France are, nevertheless, similar to those of Western European countries with a better Pap smear coverage.
59. Avis du Conseil Supérieur de l'Hygiène Publique de France, March 9, 2007, available at the CSHPF site, www.hcsp. fr/explore.cgi/ avisrapportsdomaine ?ae = avis rapportsdomaine & clefdomaine (accessed Dec. 23, 2009). The majority of complementary health insurances (mutuelles) pay for all or part of the remaining 35% of Gardasil's price, 406.77 euros for three doses in 2007
60. Avis du Comité Téchnique des Vaccinations et du Conseil Supérieur de l'Hygiène Publique de France, March 9, 2007, available at the CSHPF site, www.hcsp. fr/explore.cgi/avisrapportsdomaine ?ae = avisrapportsdomaine & clefdomaine (accessed Dec. 23, 2009).
61. Haute Autorité de la Santé, "Quelle place pour le vaccin papillomavirus human (Gardasil®) dans la prévention du cancer du col?" statement, Aug. 2007, available at www.has-sante.fr/portail/jcms/ c-592462/quelle-place-pour-le-vaccin-papilloma virus-humain-gardasil-dans-la- prevention-du-cancer-du-col (accessed Jan 28.2010).
62. Brun, Dachez, Mathé, et al., "Prévention du cancer de col d'utérus"
63. Pierre Bégué, Rogert Henrion, Bernard Blanc, Marc Girard, and Hélène Sancho-Garnier, "Les vaccins de papillomavirus humains: Leur place dans le prevention du cancer du col utérin", report made by commissions VI-a, VI-b, III, and two working groups of the Académie Nationale de Médecine, Dec. 11, 2008, Publications de l'Académie de Médecine, Paris. The report is also available at www.academie-medecine.fr/UserFiles/⋯/begue-rapp-11dec-2008.doc (accessed December 23, 2009).
64. Sandrine Blanchard, "Cancer d'utérus: Interview avec le professeur Claude Béraud", Le Monde, July 9, 2008.
65. Winckler's blog was at http://martinwinckler.com/article.php3?id-article= 908&var-recherche=gardasil. This blog was published in November 2007. Winckler's real name is Marc Zaffran. He became famous in France following the success of his novel La maladie de Sachs, a rather iconoclastic image of the problems of a general practitioner in the French countryside-later also a pop u lar movie. He has since published several other novels and hosted a radio program.
66. The French-language short publicity spot (23 seconds), "Pasez l'info" (pass the information), http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjlbcj-YcRc, was coproduced by four (relatively small) associations of gynecologists and funded by Sanofi - Pasteur. This spot was not broadcast in the French media, because direct advertisement of drugs to consumers is illegal in France. Destined to an unregulated circuit, it was probably seen by only a small number of viewers. On the direct Gardasil publicity to consumers in the United States, see chapter 8.
67. The discussion appeared at http://martinwinckler.com/article.php3?id- article=911&var-recherche=Gardasil+.
68. See the DDI Web site, www.urml-reunion.net/ddi/index-ddi.html. In France, the term liberal doctors describes physicians who are not paid by the state; that is, in French conf gurations, such doctors usually do not belong to medical elites and do not work in major teaching and research hospitals.
69. Sandrine Blanchard, "Cancer d'utérus: L'age de la vaccination rémis en cause", Le Monde, Feb. 12, 2008.
70. Reuter, "Glaxo's Cervarix Priced on Par with Gardasil in the UK", Oct. 1, 2007;
71. Deyna Chatzimichalaki, "GlaxoSmithKline: Cervarix Enters Potentially Lucrative Cervical Cancer Prevention Market", Pharmaceutical Business, Sept. 25, 2007;
72. Ed Silverman, "Sanofi Executive: Glaxo's Cervarix Study Is a 'Gimmick'", Pharmalot, Feb. 7, 2008;
73. Elena Barton, "Sanofi Pasteur voit une poursuite de la hausse ventes de Gardasil en UE", La Vie Financière, Feb. 5, 2008. The sales of Gardasil in the United States were much higher.
74. The possibility is not excluded that the recent skeptical evaluations of its efficacy and the increasingly frequent emphasis on the pharmaceutical industry's interest in promoting vaccination on a large scale before the patents run out will lead to a slowdown in HPV vaccination. Charlotte J. Haug, "Human Papillomavirus Vaccination-Reasons for Caution", New England Journal of Medicine 359, no. 8(2008):861-862;
75. Elizabeth Rosenthal, "Drug Makers' Push Leads to Cancer's Vaccines' Rise", New York Times, Aug. 20, 2008. See also chapter 3.
76. Ludwik Fleck, "Problemy naukoznawstwa", Zycie Nauki 1(1946):332-336, quote on 335-336, italics mine. Also see the En glish translation
77. Ludwik Fleck, "Problems of the Science of Science", in Cognition and Fact: Materials on Ludwik Fleck, ed. Robert Cohen and Thomas Schnelle (Dordrecht, Germany: Reidel, 1986), 113-128