Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is one of the most common causes of sexually transmitted infection, which can lead to serious health problems including cancer in both women and men. About 79 million Americans are infected with HPV, and about 14 million Americans become newly infected every year, according to reports. Getting vaccinated with Gardasil or Cervarix is one way of preventing infection by some of the most common types of HPV.
A report on the impact of HPV vaccination on females has revealed that the prevalence of *vaccine-type human papillomavirus in girls aged 14 to 19 has decreased by more than half from 11.5 percent to 5.1 percent since the introduction of HPV vaccine in 2006. (*The vaccine-type human papillomavirus refers to HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18). However, such significant differences over time are not observed in other age groups.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, the decline rate of HPV prevalence was greater than expected despite only one third of 13 to 17-year-old girls in the U.S. getting fully vaccinated with HPV vaccine. This larger-than-expected impact has been attributed to what is called herd immunity, or indirect benefit from the vaccination.
There are two HPV vaccines available in the U.S. namely, Gardasil and Cervarix.
Gardasil, approved in 2006, and Cervarix, approved in 2009, are both administered as a three-dose regimen, intramuscularly.
Routine vaccination with either vaccine is recommended for all females age 11 or 12, through the age of 26 if not vaccinated before. In males, only Gardasil is recommended for boys aged 11 or 12 years, and for males aged 13 through 21 years of age, if not vaccinated before.
The present report doesn't mention the impact of vaccination on HPV prevalence in males since no males were included in the study. The first data related to monitoring HPV prevalence in males will be available only in 2015, according to a CDC telebriefing held yesterday.
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