In Brazil, the HPV vaccine has been available for free for five years by SUS .
It aims to protect people against the HPV virus, the human papillomavirus, preventing the appearance of genital warts (condyloma) caused by STD and some types of cancer , such as cancer of the cervix (most common), penis, anus and oropharynx.
However, vaccination rates are still low. Even with the reinforcements made annually by national vaccination campaigns, only 48.7% of girls aged 9 to 14 years were immunized.
Several factors can influence these low rates, one of which is the age of the target audience. In the case of younger children, there is a referral from the pediatrician himself, different from the HPV vaccine.
Thus, immunization in adolescents is more difficult than in children, because for this public the risk of cancer may seem a very distant reality, in addition to the possibility of being resistant to vaccination.
All of these factors have a negative impact on the protection of adolescents and adults against the virus and the serious complications that it can cause.
For this reason, we have listed some main reasons for those responsible to understand the importance of vaccination for adolescents.
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HPV is common
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), transmission of HPV is so common that almost all sexually active men and women will be infected with at least one subtype of the virus during their lives.