It was 57 per cent in 2013.
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According to the CDC, about 40 percent of girls and 60 percent of boys 13 to 17 years old have not started the recommended HPV vaccine series.
Now it is recommended by the CDC that girls and boys ages 11 to 12 get the HPV vaccine.
It protects against cervical cancer and genital warts.
Schuchat urged health providers to offer the HPV vaccine at the same time that Tdap and MenACWY are given and added that not getting a physician’s recommendation and incorporating the vaccine into immunization routines amounts to a missed opportunity.
The contrast is stark when you compare HPV vaccination rates with the two other recommended vaccines for teens.
About 87 percent of teenagers have received at least one dose of the Tdap vaccine, which protects against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (whooping cough), and 79 percent have received the meningitis vaccine, the CDC reported.
Some state and local areas achieved “much larger increases” in coverage, according to the CDC.
The 2014 National Immunization Survey of teens collected data regarding 20,827 adolescents.
“We are seeing patchwork progress”, she said.
There’s also the issue of cost. “There’s quite a range in HPV vaccination coverage around the country”.
However, as a nation there is still a big challenge with HPV uptake, she said.
Most people who have HPV-the most common sexually transmitted disease-don’t know they are infected.
Indeed, there’s a 37.7 percent difference between the state with the highest rate of girls getting a first dose of HPV vaccine and the state with the lowest rate. That’s an increase of three percentage points for girls and eight percentage points for boys from the 2013 estimates. HPV vaccination could prevent the majority of these cancers from ever developing.
Today’s article will be available on the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report website at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ after the embargo lifts at 1 p.m. ET.
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“The vaccine got off on the wrong foot with the public, but with physicians too because a fair number thought they would have to talk about sexual contact and they were reluctant to”, said Dr. Carol Baker, executive director of the Center for Vaccine Awareness and Research at Texas Children’s Hospital.
