HPV Vaccine and Pap

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Anchor lead: Just a single dose of the HPV vaccine may be helpful, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Vaccines against human papilloma virus prevent cancer. Cancers of the cervix in women and cancers of the mouth and throat in both men and women. Now a new study shows that just a single dose of the vaccine in preteens prevented many abnormal Pap smears that did develop in those who didn’t get the shot. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, says this study adds to others demonstrating the many benefits of the HPV vaccine.

Nelson: The other thing that we saw was some hint that vaccinating less than the full population had some benefit because then you’d be more likely to have a sexual activity with partners that may have been vaccinated and you suppress the transmission so I think what that means is that the more people you can get vaccinated the better and then many things will get better including you may not need so many vaccine courses or you may not ultimately need to get 100% of people vaccinated to already start to get benefit.  :28

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.