The reasons are likely numerous, but only 27.3 percent of eligible teenage girls and young women chose to begin the three-dose series of an HPV vaccine. And of these, 39.1 percent completed just one dose, 30.1 percent got two doses and 30.7 percent finished the series, according to research being presented this week at the American Association of Cancer Research annual meeting.
The data comes from a review of medical records of 9,658 girls and women between the ages of 9 and 26 who were seen at the University of Maryland Medical Center between August 2006 and August 2010, HealthDay writes. The abstract also revealed that blacks were less likely than whites to get all three doses, and women aged 18 through 26 were less likely than younger girls to complete the series.
Last summer, a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of more than 20,000 teens between the ages of 13 and 17 found that vaccination rates were creeping up (back story). About 30 percent of sexually active teenagers between 14 and 19 years old are believed to be infected with HPV at any one time, according to the abstract.
Public health officials strongely endorsed Merck's Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix as safe and important public health tools in prevening HPV, which can lead to cervical cancer. But the vaccines have generated controversy, in part, because Merck lobbied states surreptiously for mandatory vaccination; the price tag is high; some parents remain skittsh the vaccines confer a green light for teenage sex and side effect concerns continue to garner publicity. Recently, a parents group asked the FDA to rescind approval (look here).
J. Kathleen Tracy, an assistant professor of epidemiology and public health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, who authored the study, is now examining whether text messages can provide effective reminders to prompt women who 18 to 26 years old to keep follow-up appointments for subsequent doses.
8 Comments
You neglected to mention the major reason women are not getting it: it doesn't prevent cervical cancer.
If such a vaccine was available, I'd be the first to counsel young women to get it. As it stands, it's just another HRT. Too bad pharma can't figure out they just shoot themselves in the foot when they lie time after time, and risk our lives for profit.
True, riv, it only prevents some of the strains of HPV that lead to cancers.
And on relatively rare occasions, it burdens the vaccinated with truly monstrous, and horrific side-effects -- some life-long and profoundly debilitating. If a young woman is not engaging in sexual relations (at 13!), it would seem a risk not worth taking.
So the fact that around one-third of them are getting vaccinated may have as much to do with their relatively high levels of chastity -- as the campaign's overall lack of. . . penetration. Ba-Dum-Bum. [Forgive me.]
नमस्ते to all. . .
My daughter's pediatrician claims that "about half" of the practice's eligible patients choose to get the vaccine, and she recommends it for my daughter. Of course, she also says that none of their patients have had side effects.
Leaves me wondering what to make of my daughter's friend who received the vaccine at the same practice. She developed a horrific rash that slowly spread from her abdomen to her forehead, resistant to various treatments as it ran its course. Three pediatricians and two dermatologists had never seen anything like it in their careers, but of course it was unrelated to a new vaccine the girl had received.
Suzanne's relation of the case, above, is why pharmaceuticals marketing must be more completely separated from physician education.
It is as though the pharma-marketing machines are able to convince otherwise very capable, inquisitive, deductive physicians to "check their brains (and years of experience) at the door". . .
These doctors are certainly capable of making differentiated dianoses -- but inexplicably -- they don't, once "immunized" by pharma-spin.
It must end. And end now.
नमस्ते to all. . .
young woman 27 ys of age, daughter of friend, completed the 3 shot series, and fainted with last injection. she awakened with severe headache. continues to suffer from headaches and lost consicousness when receiving the flu vaccine. her physician did not report thse adverse effects; she did not consider the problems adverse effects and besides, it is too much paper work!!!
I had all 3 series back in 2006 and had no side effects. Every person is different. You all need to keep that in mind.
no side effects - Were you 12 years old at the time?
Of course not everyone has side effects. But why risk anything if the benefit is uncertain? I was told my older daughter would be protected from chicken pox for life when she received that brand spanking new vaccine. She got chicken pox seven years later, when her sister got her live vaccine. Kids get boosters now. Took awhile to figure to that out. We'll wait for them to figure out Gardasil.
Um, yes, Gardasil prevents about 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts. I hate to use the words cervical and genital because you can get HPV in throat and anus too. My 8 year old daughter will begin the process on her doctor visit around her 9th birthday.