HPV vaccine drastically reduces virus, feds say

New federal analysis has found that in the decade since the HPV vaccine was introduced, it has reduced the virus’s prevalence in teenage girls by almost two-thirds (Source: “HPV Sharply Reduced in Teenage Girls Following Vaccine, Study Says,” New York Times, Feb. 22, 2016).

The latest research, published in the journal Pediatrics, used data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey to examine HPV immunization and infection rates through 2012, but just in girls. The recommendation to vaccinate boys became widespread only in 2011; they will be included in subsequent studies.

The vaccine was introduced in 2006 to combat the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.

Despite the vaccine’s proven effectiveness, immunization rates remain low — about 40 percent of girls and 20 percent of boys between the ages of 13 and 17. That is partly because of the implicit association of the vaccine with adolescent sexual activity, rather than with its explicit purpose: cancer prevention. Only Virginia, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia require the HPV vaccine.

Recent efforts have focused on recommending the vaccine for children ages 11 and 12, when their immune response is more robust than that of teenagers and when most states require two other vaccines — one for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, and the other for meningococcal disease. The immunization rates for those vaccines are 80 percent and higher.