HPV Vaccine: the Underused Cancer-prevention Vaccine

Nearly five thousand women will die this year from a cancer that could be prevented with a vaccine. The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 13,000 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer and of those, 4,210 will die.A vaccine that prevents against HPV was approved in 2006. The number of HPV infections in teenage girls was halved after the vaccine was introduced. But public health experts say the vaccine is massively underused.The virus that causes cervical cancer is called the human papillomavirus or HPV. It’s the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A CDC study found 1 in 4 women aged 14 to 59 is infected with HPV. The CDC says “nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.”  Continue reading...