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1 In 4 Teen Girls Get HPV Shot

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The Associated Press

Published: October 10, 2008

ATLANTA - One in four teen girls have rolled up their sleeves for the relatively new vaccine against a virus that causes cervical cancer, federal health officials said Thursday.

The figures represent the government's first substantial study of vaccination rates for the Gardasil vaccine, Merck & Co.'s heavily advertised, three-shot series that targets the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus.

The vaccine protects against strains of the virus that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers.

Health officials recommend that girls get the shots when they are 11 or 12 if possible, preferably before they become sexually active. Also, age 11 is when children are generally due for another round of vaccinations.

The survey only covered children of ages 13 through 17.

Vaccine proponents had been hoping for much higher vaccination rates, saying the shots could dramatically reduce the nearly 4,000 cervical cancer deaths that occur each year in the United States.

Many families are cautious about the safety of new vaccines, said Patti Gravitt of Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based the study on household telephone surveys done in late 2007.

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