HPV infections fell by half in teen girls after vaccine, study shows

[myswtghst]

Infections with the human papillomavirus tied to cervical cancer fell by more than half in U.S. teen girls after the HPV vaccine was introduced in 2006, despite high-profile controversy -- and low rates of uptake, a new study shows

Comments

[maynardsong]

Withheld? All insurance covers it to age 26. Doesn't sound like withholding to me.

[myswtghst]

Sorry - I didn't mean it in the sense of insurance, I meant more in the sense that parents / authority figures withhold the information / availability of the vaccine. Probably could have been clearer!

[widgets101]

I'm a bit skeptical about these vaccines myself at least for promotion in the USA where deaths due to cervical cancer are relatively low and mostly preventable by PAP screening. For one thing while they appear to be safe over a ten or twenty year period, they haven't been around long enough to know how safe they are over a lifetime. I also wonder, if you eliminate or reduce infection with the strains of HPV that are currently most frequently associated with cervical cancer, will you really reduce the incidence of cervical cancer or will other strains show up to take their place. None of the studies, at least the ones I've seen, had decreases in cervical cancer as an end point, only decreases in HPV 16/18 infection.