New confirmation of the importance of the HPV vaccine comes from the United States. Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign for young Americans in 2006, mortality from cervical cancer has dropped dramatically, reaching a good 62 percent for those under 25 compared to the previous decade. A further indication of the effectiveness of vaccines in combating the onset of cancers caused by the HPV virus comes from a study by the Medical University of South Carolina, just published in Jama.
A carcinogenic virus
HPV is a family of extremely widespread viruses that are transmitted by direct contact, usually during sexual intercourse. In the vast majority of cases the infections are completely benign, and resolve spontaneously in a short time. In the rare cases in which they persist and become chronic, however, some viral strains can expose you to the risk of developing neoplasms in the infected mucous membranes: tumors of the oral cavity, anus, esophagus and larynx. And then also, and above all, cervical cancer, for which HPV infection is the cause in practically 100 percent of cases.
For this reason, since the first vaccines were developed, a vaccination campaign has started on a global level aimed at children (usually, as in Italy, between 11 and 12 years old), to intercept them before they begin sexual activity. , thus avoiding the risk of infection and, in this way, hopefully, significantly reducing the incidence of this very dangerous tumor in the new generations. To ascertain the effectiveness of vaccination, obviously, time is needed, because years, if not decades, pass before an infection can transform, in an unfortunate minority of cases, into a neoplasm. And it is precisely in recent years that the first confirmations are finally starting to arrive.
The American study
Data from pioneering countries, such as Australia, which adopted large-scale vaccination early, have for some time now shown a significant reduction in the incidence of precancerous lesions (considered the indicator of the possible onset of cervical cancer) and diagnosis of cancer in vaccinated girls. Even in America, a study last year highlighted a 65 percent reduction in cases of cervical cancer among those under 25 between 2012 and 2019 (the period in which the first vaccinated began to come of age).
Since the aim, ultimately, is to save young lives, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina decided to see if the reduction in new diagnoses is accompanied by a palpable drop in mortality. And indeed, American data seems to confirm this. Between 1992 and 1994, 55 girls under 25 per 100,000 people died of cervical cancer in the US. Between 2019 and 2021, the number dropped to just 13. A reduction of 62 percent, just over 10 years after the introduction of the vaccine, much higher – according to the researchers – than what could be expected solely due to improvements in available therapies.
“We can’t think of any other explanation for such a marked decline,” commented Ashish Deshmukh, one of the authors of the study. “There has been a decline in HPV vaccinations following the Covid 19 pandemic in younger generations of American adolescents. And this is serious, because a decline in vaccination coverage could bring lower benefits in the future than those we are starting to see in recent years.”