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HPV vaccination coverage unchanged among adolescent girls
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HPV vaccination rates did not increase from 2011 to 2012 in girls aged 13 to 17 years, according to a recent report in the Morbidity Mortality Weekly Report.
“Last year we were disappointed that the increase in HPV vaccine was only 4 percentage points,” CDC Director Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, said during a teleconference. “This year, it’s zero percentage points. The HPV vaccine coverage hasn’t kept pace with other vaccines recommended for preteens and teens.”
Tom Frieden
In 2011, HPV vaccine coverage with one or more dose was 53% compared with 53.8% in 2012. Eighty-four percent of teen girls had a health care visit in which they received another vaccine. If they also received the HPV vaccine, coverage for one or more doses could be nearly 93%.
“That’s important because if we get the three dose series to 80%, an estimated 53,000 cases of cervical cancer could be prevented over the lifetimes of girls aged 12 and younger,” Frieden said. The 2012 National Immunization Survey-Teen data show the top five reasons parents do not have their daughters vaccinated: vaccine not needed (19.1%); vaccine not recommended (14.2%); vaccine safety concerns (13.1%); lack of knowledge about the vaccine or the disease (12.6%); and their daughter is not sexually active (10.1%).
“Research consistently showed that a provider’s recommendation is the single most influential factor in determining whether a parent gets their kid vaccinated,” Frieden said. “So we need to step up our efforts by talking to parents about the importance of this vaccine. Doctors need to recommend this vaccine just as they recommend others, and ensure that they’re given every opportunity.”
Frieden said physicians should remind parents who use the excuse that their daughter is not sexually active that vaccines must be administered before exposure, and the vaccine does not give permission for sexual activity.
“HPV vaccine does not open the door to sex,” he said. “HPV vaccine closes the door to cancer. The vaccine has to be given before onset of sexual activity.”
The safety concerns can also be discredited. Since vaccine introduction in 2006, post-licensure vaccine safety monitoring and evaluation have been conducted by federal agencies and vaccine manufacturers, and no serious safety concerns have been reported.
“Both the CDC and AAP think this is a critical vaccine,” Frieden said. “We can’t continue to let down our nation’s adolescents, teens and adults when it comes to protecting them against cancer caused by HPV,” Frieden said. “We need to protect the next generation, and we have got a great time to do this, as parents get ready to get their kids back to school, they can also get their kids protected from cancer.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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