More American teens getting vaccinated against HPV

More than half of all American teenagers are getting vaccinated against human papillomavirus, and the rate is rising over time, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sixty percent of adolescents received one or more doses of the HPV vaccine in 2016, an increase of 4 percentage points from 2015, researchers found. About a decade ago, the figure was less than 30 percent.

“We’re really encouraged to see this finding,” said Shannon Stokley, a co-author of the report and associate director for science at the Immunization Services Division of the CDC.

The vaccine protects against strains of HPV that can cause cancers of the cervix, penis, anus and back of the throat. Close to half of all Americans are infected at any given time, and nearly 32,000 get cancer from the virus each year.

About 90 percent of those cases could be prevented with the vaccine, according to the CDC. The agency used to recommend three doses, but new guidelines introduced last year amended that to two doses for adolescents younger than 15.

The new recommendation may make it easier for teenagers to complete the vaccination series. Currently, most get the first dose, but only 43 percent return to the doctor’s office for the rest.

“We hope to see a lot of gains with this change,” Stokley said. “It’s one fewer doctor’s visit they have to make.”

In the latest report, the rate of teens with two-dose coverage was 6.3 percentage points higher than those with three doses.

CDC researchers also noted progress in the gender gap.

Since the vaccine’s introduction — in 2006 for girls and in 2011 for boys — vaccination rates have increased gradually for girls and more rapidly for boys. But disparities remain.

Coverage is about 20 percentage points higher among 17-year-old girls than among boys of the same age. That gap narrows for younger teens, likely reflecting gains made in recent years.

The new report also found that HPV vaccination coverage was 15 percentage points lower in rural areas than in cities.

The discrepancy could reflect differences in parental views, or perhaps the lower number of pediatricians in rural areas.

“It’s a new finding, and at this point we really don’t know what’s behind that,” Stokley said. “We need to better understand what’s going on in rural communities.”

“We hope to see a lot of gains with this change. It’s one fewer doctor’s visit they have to make.” Shannon Stokley associate director for science at the Immunization Services Division of the CDC