There s bad news, at least for the future, on the cervical cancer front. More parents are putting their kids at risk by choosing not to have their daughters vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV), a new study finds. HPV has been proven to be the most important cause of cervical cancer, and a contributing factor in several other types as well in both men and women, and the vaccine has been proven highly effective in protecting against HPV, and safe.
Dr. Paul Darden of the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City and colleagues analyzed a national immunization survey involving phone calls to almost 100,000 parents, and found that three-quarters of their daughters were not up to date on their HPV series in 2010.
And the proportion of parents who cited safety concern as their reason for abstaining from the shots jumped from less than 5 percent to 16 percent from 2008 to 2010, the study found. Other reasons for avoiding the vaccinations included not thinking they were necessary, not believing their child was having sex, and not having the vaccine recommended by a doctor.
Overall, 44 percent of parents said they didn t plan on having their daughter get all or any of the shots, up from 40 percent in 2008, the researchers said in the study, published in Pediatrics.
These are wonderful vaccines preventing severe diseases, Dr. Darden told Reuters Health. HPV is the first vaccine that will prevent cancer, which is a tremendous health benefit.
ACSH s Dr. Ruth Kava noted The results of this survey are several years old: We can only hope that parents will have learned since then of the benefits and excellent safety record of HPV vaccines.
To learn more about this vaccine, read Dr. Gilbert Ross s op-ed here.
