A new, single-dose human papillomavirus vaccine may help the World Health Organization reach its goal to vaccinate 90% of 15-year-old girls against HPV by 2030. Matthew Busch for The Washington Post via Getty Images Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes cervical cancer and primarily affects people in low- and middle-income countries.
Recommendations currently suggest women and girls need multiple doses of an HPV vaccine for it to be effective.
In the present study, the researchers found that a single dose of an HPV vaccine was as effective as a multi-dose vaccine.
A single-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine can be as effective as the three-dose regimen which is the current standard, a new study in Africa found.
The research, published in NEJM Evidence, could help speed up the rate at that women are vaccinated against the virus, reducing its effectiveness at the level of the population.
Cervical Cancer and HPV According to the World Health OrganizationTrusted Source (WHO), in 2020 342,000 women died due to cervical cancer. 90% of these deaths occurred in low- or middle-income countries.
HPV — and in particular its serotypes 16 and 18 — account for 50% of high-grade cervical pre-cancers.
Currently, women and girls can be vaccinated against HPV, but according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTrusted Source (CDC), this requires a two- or three-dose regimen.
The need for multiple doses slows down the rate at which women and girls can be vaccinated. This is particularly the case in low- or middle-income countries, where there is less infrastructure and less money to enable rapid, widespread vaccination.
Researchers have found that having more people vaccinated reduces the spread of HPV at a population level.
According to WHO Assistant Director-General Dr. Princess Nothemba (Nono) Simelela, the new study’s findings may help with the goal of eliminating cervical cancer.
“I firmly believe the elimination of cervical cancer is possible,” says Dr. Simelela.
“In 2020 the Cervical Cancer Elimination InitiativeTrusted Source was launched to address several challenges including the inequity in vaccine access. This single-dose recommendation has the potential to take us faster to our goal of having 90% of girls vaccinated by the age of 15 by 2030.”
A randomized, controlled trial The randomized, controlled trial involved 2,275 women and girls aged between 15 and 20.
