Vaccine News: Vaccine Helps Bring Down HPV Rates

In recent years, the HPV vaccine and vaccinations in general have become a hot issue for parents. However, researchers claim that thanks to vaccinations the rates of the HPV cancer causing virus are on the decline.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began recommending the Human papillomavirus vaccine back in the year 2006. Even from the beginning there was a lot of push back from parents. But now a new study from the CDC comes to prove that in the last decade the rates of HPV infection are down 63 percent among girls ages 14 to 19. The credit for this achievement goes to the HPV vaccination.

When it hit the main stream ten years ago, the HPV vaccine was very controversial, according to the website ksdk.com. The recent findings were able to change a bit parents' minds about the HPV vaccination.

According to Dr. Gary Wheeler, CMO for the Arkansas Department of Health, in the beginning there was a fear that the HPV vaccine could be taken as "some sort of signal to adolescent girls that sex was safe". This could lead to an increase in promiscuity and sexual activity. However, the initial fears proved to be unjustified and in fact some sort of the opposite has happened.

The HPV vaccine Gardasil was introduced back in the year 2006 and it was controversial among many parents. The vaccine is most effective the younger you are and for this reason it is especially encouraged for children under the age of 12.  However, parents didn't consider their kids at risk at that age because they are too young to be sexually active.

According to the CDC, HPV is most commonly spread through sex. Today, only in the United States alone around 14 million new infections are reported each year and an estimated 79 million females aged 14-59 are infected with HPV. Virtually all cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV.