HPV Vaccine Helps Reduce Cervical Cancer Risk in Teen Girls by 56 Percent

The human papillomavirus vaccine seems to be making great headway in the United States, helping prevent cervical cancer among teenage girls by as much as 56 percent. Despite that the vaccine has been available since 2006, more are becoming aware of the virus and possibilities that prevention methods can create.

"Today we have really good news," said Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, via USA Today. "These are striking results."

The human papillomavirus is the most common sexually transmitted infection, with 40 different types that can affect the genital areas of males and females. Some types of HPV can even infect the mouth and the throat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

HPV can lead to serious health problems, including genital warts and even certain throat canters. And anyone who is sexually active is at risk for HPV, so protecting yourself from the virus is essential when with new partners.

The CDC notes that more serious problems that can stem from HPV are genital warts, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis (RRP), a rare condition in which warts grow in the throat, cervical cancer, cancer on a woman's cervix and other less common but serious cancers, including genital cancers and types of head and neck cancers.

The vaccine appears to dramatically reduce the percent of teen girls who have been infected with certain strains of the virus by more than half, according to the study.

"This is an anti-cancer vaccine," Frieden said, via the study. "We owe it to the next generation to protect them against cervical cancer."

Frieden expressed concern that only as few as one-third of girls 13-1y received the full three-course HPV vaccine injections.

"Our low vaccination rates represent 50,000 preventable tragedies: 50,000 girls alive today will develop cervical cancer over their lifetime that would have been prevented if we reached 80 percent vaccination rates. For every year we delay in doing so, another 4,400 girls will develop cervical cancer in their lifetimes."

The study examined data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to compare girls and women ages 14 to 59 who had different types of HPV before and after the vaccination program started. Rates in young women with the virus dropped 56 percent from the period 2003-06 to 2007-10. 

The study notes that doctors can't be completely sure why the decline is so great, given that only 46 percent of the young women received at least one dose and only 32 percent received all three. 

To add to that, some parents feel giving teens this vaccination even "encourages" sexual activity. However, Frieden said the vaccination is meant to protect them when they become adults. 

"We vaccinate well before people are exposed to an infection," he said. "We vaccinate for measles, for example, early in childhood or infancy because that's well before a child may get exposed. Similarly, we want to vaccinate children well before they may get exposed."

The study was published in the June issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases.