HPV vaccination not linked to riskier sex

Receiving the human papillomavirus vaccine does not increase rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in adolescent females. The vaccine, which can prevent cervical cancer in women, has had a low uptake, partly because of concerns about how it will affect adolescent sexual activity.

The findings, based on investigations by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Sothern California, published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that the vaccine does not promote risky sexual behaviors among those who have received the vaccine.

"Since this is one of the few medications ever developed that can actually prevent cancer, it's good to be able to reassure parents, physicians and policymakers that the vaccine does not promote unsafe sexual practices among girls and young women," said Anupam Jena, assistant professor of health care policy at HMS, internist at Massachusetts General Hospital and faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

In Australia, which has instituted a national policy of mandatory HPV vaccination, delivered for free through the schools, more than 80 percent of girls ages 14-16 have received at least one of the three recommended doses of the vaccine. In the U.S., the same-dosage rate for girls ages 13-17 is 57.3 percent.

Two HPV vaccines currently exist in the market. When the first HPV vaccine, Gardasil, was introduced in 2006, there was outcry among some parents, pediatricians and politicians in the U.S. that vaccinating young girls might increase their chances of engaging in risky sexual activity, either through introducing the idea of sexual activity at an early age through prevaccination counseling or through creating a mistaken idea that the vaccine protects against more than just HPV.

These concerns spurred political controversies that led some states to ban mandatory HPV vaccination.

What is HPV?

Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the U.S.

There are about 40 types of HPV. About 20 million people in the U.S. are infected, and about 6.2 million more get infected each year. HPV is spread through sexual contact.

Most HPV infections don’t cause any symptoms, and go away on their own. But HPV is important mainly because it can cause cervical cancer in women. Every year in the U.S. about 10,000 women get cervical cancer and 3,700 die from it. It is the 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths among women around the world.

HPV is also associated with several less common types of cancer in both men and women. It can also cause genital warts and warts in the upper respiratory tract.

More than 50% of sexually active men and women are infected with HPV at sometime in their lives.

There is no treatment for HPV infection, but the conditions it causes can be treated.