Research Finds Single-Sex Vaccination is Most Effective at Reducing HPV Infection

Johannes Bogaards and colleagues investigated whether vaccinating females only, males only, or both sexes is the best way to achieve reduction in HPV infections

Johannes Bogaards of VU University, the Netherlands and colleagues investigated whether vaccinating females only, males only, or both sexes is the best way to achieve the most effective reduction in the population prevalence of sexually-transmitted infections. The study appears in this week's PLoS Medicine.

Specifically for human papillomavirus (HPV), the authors found that single-sex vaccination was the most effective strategy for prevention of disease and that it was preferable to vaccinate the sex with the highest prevaccine prevalence of HPV infection which for HPV is females.

Cervical Cancer - Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, Complications & Prevention
Cancer cervix refers to cancerous growth in the cervix and usually occurs in the transition called squamo-columnar junction.

The authors say: "Our results provide a justification, under most circumstances, for the intuitively plausible strategy of targeting intervention at the subgroups that harbor most infections and that act as a reservoir for transmission…We show that, once routine vaccination of one sex is in place, increasing the coverage in that sex is much more effective in bolstering herd immunity than switching to a policy that includes both sexes."

Source-Eurekalert

Pap smear and Cervical Cancer Screening
Pap smear is the most common test used in screening cervical cancer caused by an infection with human papilloma virus. Pap smear should be repeated every 1 to 3 years till the age of 65 years.

About Cancer in Women
Cancer is one of the frequently talked about and most feared disease that falls under the genre of lifestyle diseases that have evolved, rather rapidly, in the past two decades.