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--- Document: HPV & Cervical Cancer Initiative Document ---
Take a Shot!
Please Join the HPV and Cervical Cancer Initiative Focusing on
Increasing Immunization Rates Among 9-13 Year Olds
The Bergen-Hudson Chronic Disease Coalition, a program administered by the Bergen County Department of
Health Services, and funded through a grant from the New Jersey Department of Health Office of Cancer
Control and Prevention, is engaged in a required grant initiative to increase the amount of HPV immunizations
among elementary to middle school age children (primarily 9-13 year olds). The initiative’s focus is to spread
HPV awareness, strengthen HPV vaccine recommendations, and expand the vaccine’s potential to prevent
HPV-related cancers.
Since you provide health services to your community (Health Awareness Information, Adult Health
Consultation /Child Health Conferences, etc.), the coalition is requesting you share the attached HPV
information with parents/guardians/caregivers on the importance of HPV immunization for their children.
The coalition has previously contacted school nurses to network this information as well. Would you be able
to follow-up with us via email if you were able to disseminate this important information to adults who
have children in the targeted age range?
There is also the availability of FREE presentations geared to parents on the benefits of HPV immunizations
for their upper elementary or middle school children. These presentations will be conducted by health
educators and could be scheduled at your local department of health. These presentations have also been
made available to PTA/PTO organizations or other parent groups affiliated with schools in your municipality.
HPV is by far the most common sexually transmitted disease in the U.S.-approximately 14 million new
infections arise each year-and is responsible for virtually all cervical cancers, as well as 50% of vulvar, vaginal,
anal and oropharyngeal cancers. The 2012-2013 Annual Report of the President’s Cancer Panel labeled the
HPV vaccine as a public health priority, calling HPV vaccine underuse “…a serious but correctable threat to
progress against cancer.”
The HPV vaccine is a safe and effective form of cancer prevention. However, national HPV immunization rates
have stagnated, with only 39.7% of girls and 21.6% of boys 13-17 years of age receiving the complete 3-dose
series in 2014. These rates fall far short of the Healthy People 2020 goal of 80% coverage. In New Jersey, in
2014, only 48.0% of females and 35.5% of males 13-17 years of age received the first dose in the three-dose
series (the National rate for girls and boys is 60% and 42%, respectively.)
Three HPV vaccines, administered as a 3-dose series with doses given at 0, 1-2, and 6 month, have been
licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for females since 2006 and males since 2009. The
Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommends the following HPV vaccines for routine use among girls and
boys at ages 11 or 12: Bivalent (Cervarix), quadrivalent (Gardasil), and 9-valent (Gardasil 9) that all protect
against HPV 16 and 18, the HPV types that cause about 66% of cervical cancers and the majority of other HPV-
attributable cancers in the United States. 9-valent HPV vaccine targets five additional cancer-causing types,
which account for about 15% of cervical cancers. Quadrivalent and 9-valent HPV vaccine also protect against
HPV 6 and 11, the HPV types that cause anogenital warts.
HPV vaccines have good safety records. Studies have shown that each HPV vaccine is very safe, and careful
safety monitoring has not shown any problems.
Your interaction with parents and your recommendation to have them consider getting their child immunized
with HPV vaccine can positively impact HPV immunization rates. Most importantly, your efforts may be a
contributing factor in protecting them from HPV-associated cancers and disease.
For more information on HPV and Cervical Cancer initiative and the Bergen-Hudson Chronic Disease
Coalition, please contact Eric Ciavaglia, Coordinator, at 201-634-2709, eciavaglia@co.bergen.nj.us or Albert
J. Ferrara, Jr. at 201-634-2707, aferrara@co.bergen.nj.us.
Please feel free to review our coalition website: http://www.co.bergen.nj.us/index.aspx?nid=390 as well.
Thank you for your cooperation and assistance in this initiative.
.
If there were a
vaccine against
cancer, wouldn’t
you get it for
your kids?
HPV vaccine is
cancer prevention.
Talk to the doctor
about vaccinating
your 11–12 year old
sons and daughters
against HPV.
www.cdc.gov/vaccines/teens
CS249586-A
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