Gender-neutral HPV vaccination best at preventing cervical cancer

The most effective way to prevent cervical cancer is to give HPV vaccines to both boys and girls, reports a collaborative study involving researchers from Karolinska Institutet. Beside personal immunity, such use of the vaccine also induces herd immunity that will help to eradicate the carcinogenic virus types more quickly.

The HPV vaccine has been around since 2006. Initially, it was given exclusively to girls around the age of 12, but since August 2020, the HPV vaccine has been offered to both boys and girls in the year-five general vaccination programme.

The study included children born between 1992 and 1994 who were followed up at the age of 18 ( over 11,000 individuals) and 22 (over 5,500 individuals), representing four and eight years after vaccination. The vaccine used then protected against HPV types 16 and 18, which cause 70 per cent of all HPV-related cervical cancers, but also transpired to provide cross-protection against types 31 and 45. The vaccine coverage rate was up to 50 per cent.

The results show that eight years after vaccination, the prevalence of HPV types 16 and 18 declined significantly in the 22 towns in which the vaccine was provided. In the eleven towns that only vaccinated girls, there was a decrease in HPV 31, while in the eleven towns that vaccinated girls and boys, there was a clear decline in both HPV 31 and 45.

Reference: Ecological diversity profiles of non-vaccine-targeted HPVs after gender-based community vaccination efforts, Cell Host & Microbe

DOI: 10.1016/j.chom.2023.10.001