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Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is a very common sexually transmitted infection that affects more than 80% of young men and women at the start of their sexual life. It is the cause of nearly 8,000 cancers each year. Yet there is a vaccine against these infections but France remains very late according to the National Academy of Medicine.
The National Academy of Medicine is sounding the alarm about the vaccine against human papillomaviruses. Indeed, according to the Elders, only 28% of the adolescents concerned were vaccinated, mainly girls, with 29% having received a dose at 15 years old and 24% having their complete vaccination schedule at 16 years old.
Figures still too low
These figures place France in 27th place in the European ranking. In comparison, Spain, Portugal or the United Kingdom have a target population vaccinated at more than 75%. Dr. Odile Bagot, obstetrician-gynecologist and member of the Doctissimo expert committee, is not surprised. “There is a reluctance to get vaccinated in France. In Australia, for example, where the population is fully vaccinated, they have succeeded in eradicating cervical cancer”.
A lack of adherence to the vaccine
Vaccines against the papilloma virus have existed since 2007. First reserved for girls, they were extended to boys aged 11 to 14, in 2019. In 2021, coverage of the vaccine by Social Security was extended at 65%. In the same year, French vaccination coverage rose to 41%, with 45.8% of girls and 6% of boys vaccinated.
Numbers ‘very far from the objectives of the National Sexual Health Strategy and the Cancer Plan, which set the vaccination rate at 60% of adolescent girls aged 11 to 19 in 2023 and 80% by 2035″ remind the Sages.
Several reasons are put forward by the latter to explain the public’s lack of interest in this vaccine, such as a “cancer control strategy mainly focused on cervical cancer“and therefore a female audience, a”lack of political and strategic coordination on the part of the ARS” and one “lack of confidence among some health professionals who give up trying to convince patients“.
For Dr. Odile Bagot, “everyone must be reassured about the vaccine, in particular Gardasil 9 which protects more broadly against the various HPVs. In addition, by vaccinating boys, the protection also extends to other types of cancer, in particular those of the anus and the oropharyngeal area in addition to those of the cervix. reminds the specialist.
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HPV, responsible for genital pathologies but not only
Every year in France, papillomaviruses are responsible “more than 100,000 cases of benign genital warts, more than 30,000 precancerous lesions and more than 8,000 cancers of the genital, anal and oropharyngeal regions” indicates the Academy of Medicine, which encourages the vaccination of target audiences, recalling “the efficacy and good tolerance of marketed vaccines“.
For this, she recommends establishing “confidence in this vaccination“, of “make the offer of vaccination systematic in children aged 11 to 14, with relaunch of unvaccinated adolescents up to the age of 19” and of “facilitate its access, in particular to people of disadvantaged conditions and in schools“.