PNC Breakfast Speaker Urges for Distribution of HPV Vaccination
A University of Scranton alumns, Kiel has travelled to 13 of the 14 Asia Pacific countries, and plans to travel to Vietnam in the near future. She has travelled to these countries to try to sell and distribute the vaccine to women in need.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Joan Kuzmack Kiel strongly urged for the distribution of the HPV vaccination to women in the Asia Pacific countries during her speech at the PNC Breakfast on Tuesday morning., Feb. 24, in The Rose Room of Brennan Hall.
A University of Scranton alumns, Kiel has travelled to 13 of the 14 Asia Pacific countries, and plans to travel to Vietnam in the near future. She has travelled to these countries to try to sell and distribute the vaccine to women in need.
HPV, or Human Papillomavirus, when found in women, often becomes cervical cancer. The vaccine is supposed to prevent the patient from ever contracting HPV. In cases where the vaccine is delivered too late, HPV often turns into cancer.
“In the world, 450 women are dying each day from cervical cancer, and 80% of that number comes from women in developing countries like India and China where’s there’s not access to medicine,” said Kiel. She also stated that cervical cancer is the number two killer of women in the world.
Kiel stressed using the vaccine as early as possible to prevent HPV from ever taking hold, since the vaccine is not as effective after infection occurs.
“It can take up to 20 years for HPV to evolve into cervical cancer,” said Kiel. “In the US, we have pap screening in place to catch HPV in its developing stages. Unfortunately, in developing countries, pap screening is not in place. We do not find the disease until it’s in a much later stage, and that can be very damaging.”
Kiel said that the problem is that doctors do not understand why the vaccine should be administered so early. Most women want to receive the vaccine when they are in their 20’s. “Pediatricians don’t understand the disease,” said Kiel. “They understand the vaccination but they don’t understand why it’s so important to vaccinate early.”
She recommended that girls should be vaccinated around ages 12 or 13. “The greatest medical need is for younger patients,” said Kiel. “The need for a vaccine decreases over time because the vaccine doesn’t offer a benefit once you become infected.”
Kiel is the director of Asia Pacific Marketing, Vaccines for Merck & Co., Inc. She graduated from The University of Scranton in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and received her MBA with a marketing concentration from Villanova University.
The PNC Breakfast is a lecture series at The University of Scranton that brings together members of the civic and business community to hear guest speakers address topics of regional, national and international interest. PNC Bank is the corporate sponsor.
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