Too Few Teens Receive HPV Shot, CDC Says
Agency urges doctors to recommend it along with other routine immunizations
By Steven Reinberg
THURSDAY, July 24, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- An "unacceptably low" number of girls and boys are getting the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against cervical, anal and other cancers, U.S. health officials said Thursday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends all boys and girls aged 11 and 12 get the three-dose vaccine so that protection is in place before they become sexually active.
Yet, despite a slight increase over the year before, only 57 percent of girls and 35 percent of boys aged 13 to 17 have had one or more doses, the CDC said based on results of a 2013 survey.
And only one-third of teen girls have received all three doses of HPV vaccine, according to the survey covering more than 18,000 teens.
Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said, "Today I wish I had good news, but what I need to report is a small increase in HPV vaccinations."
"It is a relief that we did not continue to have flat-lining HPV coverage in 2013. You may recall that there was absolutely no improvement from 2011 to 2012," she said during an afternoon news conference. "The increase [in 2013] we did see was small at the national level. We were disappointed at the overall finding."
Fred Wyand, a spokesman for the American Sexual Health Association, said, "Among all childhood vaccines, HPV is sort of the new kid on the block."
This vaccine works well and is safe, Wyand said. "But we don't think of this as a routine checklist item, the way we do with other vaccines . . . That will come in time," he said.
High-risk HPV strains cause virtually all cervical cancers, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. They also cause most anal cancers and some vaginal, vulva, penile and oral cancers.
If girls had one or more doses of HPV vaccine before their 13th birthdays, 91 percent would have some protection from cancers caused by the sexually transmitted virus, according to the analysis, published in the July 25 issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.