Doctors Support a Childhood Vaccine for a Sex-Related Virus

According to a new survey reported Thursday to an expert panel meeting in Atlanta, most pediatricians would be willing to give patients a vaccine against the types of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause most cases of cervical cancer if federal officials licensed the immunization. Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) are testing vaccines against HPV, the first of which may be licensed as early as next year. The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, counsels CDC on which populations should receive vaccines.

But CDC's Nicole Liddon, the senior author of the report on the survey, cautioned that pediatricians must learn more about the HPV vaccine and the issues surrounding it.

CDC and researchers at the University of Colorado conducted the survey in part because of the concern that parents would refuse to vaccinate their children against HPV for fear that it would encourage promiscuity. But of the 298 members of the American Academy of Pediatrics who took part in the survey, only 11 percent agreed that vaccination against an STD would lead to risky sexual behavior.

Respondents said the biggest hurdle to HPV vaccination would be inadequate reimbursement from insurance companies. Neither Merck nor GSK has said what the vaccine would cost.

While 57 percent of respondents believed that parents would not allow their young daughters to receive the vaccine, other surveys have shown that parents usually follow a pediatrician's recommendation. That means doctors and parents would likely need to discuss varying perceptions of the vaccine, said Liddon.

About two-thirds of those surveyed correctly knew that HPV infection causes most cervical cancers, but 54 percent said incorrectly that genital warts are caused by the same HPV types that cause cervical cancer. Twenty-three percent incorrectly believed that HPV incidence is highest among women in their 30's, and 48 percent said they did not know. These responses, the report said, point to a need for pediatricians to become more educated about HPV.

Back to other news for October 28, 2005