RNS: Sexual history should not guide HPV vaccination, February 2008
TIME: 2:01
URL: www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2008/hmhvp.htm
U-M Health Minute: Today’s top health issues and medical research
U-M study: Sexual history shouldn’t guide HPV vaccination
Basing vaccination on women’s sexual activity, other behavioral risk factors could exclude up to 80% of women otherwise eligible for the HPV vaccine
Suggested lead: A new study from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital finds that using risk factors to target specific populations for HPV vaccination is not effective, and would exclude many women who could benefit the most from vaccination. Here’s Andi McDonnell with more.
Target the human papillomavirus vaccine to sexually active young adult women at greatest risk for contracting one or more of the HPV strains known to cause cervical cancer and genital warts.
It might sound like an effective strategy, but a new study from the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s finds that using certain risk factors, including sexual history, to determine if a woman should be vaccinated could deprive more than 80 percent of eligible women from getting the vaccine.
Study lead author Dr. Amanda F. Dempsey (M.D., Ph.D., MPH) a member of the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit team at Mott, explains…
”Our study here at the University of Michigan showed that using risk factors to target specific populations of women for HPV vaccination was not a very good strategy. What we found was that using this strategy left many women who had not yet been exposed to HPV infection unable to receive the vaccine and this is important because these women actually might derive the most benefit from vaccination, since the vaccine needs to be given before infection occurs.”
What’s more, the study reveals that a targeted approach to vaccination would likely vaccinate a large number of women already infected with at least one of the four HPV strains the vaccination provides protection against.
Still, Dempsey says the study results support the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendation that all women between the ages of 11 and 26 years old, regardless of their sexual or social history, receive the HPV vaccine.
And, she reminds women to continue to get regular pap smears to prevent cervical cancer, even if they have gotten the HPV vaccine.
“Even though the HPV vaccine does provide significant protection against cervical cancer it doesn’t protect against all forms of HPV, so it’s quite important for women who are vaccinated to still receive routine pap smear screening because the HPV vaccine won’t protect against all forms of cervical cancer.”
Andi McDonnell, U-M Health System News.
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