United States: An adolescence-based HPV vaccination is sure to result in a lifetime of being safe from the risk of cervical cancer along with other types of cancer associated with the virus, and the current vaccination rate in the US stands at just half.
According to a new review, if HPV shots became mandatory by the schools and made an entry-level requirement for students, it would help raise immunization rates.
A team at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. said, “A majority of studies evaluating HPV vaccine school-entry requirements found positive associations between school-entry requirements and HPV vaccination coverage,” as US News reported.
Moreover, mandating other vaccines, such as meningitis or the Tdap vaccines, would have a “spillover” effect, thereby encouraging more parents to vaccinate their kids against HPV.
More about HPV
The CDC) is warning that 11 – 12 year old kids should be immunized against HPV (human papillomavirus) because there is sexual transmission of it. The vaccine has two shots that are six months thrice aside from vaccines, physical distancing plays a vital role in the prevention of the spread of the virus.
The concerning fact is that recent CDC data for 2022 shows that only 50 percent of youth at age 13 are fully immunized against HPV.
What have a new study found?
The new study was a collaboration between the Faculty of the Wake Forest University, Duke University and the University at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, in which they assessed 2009-2022 data collected from 36 studies comparing HPV vaccination against local school entry requirements.
Brigid Grabert, a study senior author and an assistant professor of implementation science at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., said, “We found consistent evidence that school-entry requirements work in places that require parents who don’t vaccinate to submit an exemption,” as US News reported.
“We also found that school-entry requirements for other vaccines resulted in positive spillover effects for HPV vaccinations,” Grabert added.
The study findings were published recently in Pediatrics.
Grabert added, “Policymakers should be aware that HPV-related cancers and disease can be reduced,” and, “But not all policies are effective. Policymakers should carefully consider the best strategy to increase the administration of HPV vaccines,” as US News reported.