Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by strictnein 3 days ago
Two things, I think.

1. The original guidance did not call for boys to get the vaccine. It does now.

2. We're talking about two different age groups. The article talks about those under 50. The group who got the HPV vaccine as part of their normal schedule are now just hitting their early 20s.

There's also still a huge number of people in the US who have HPV. It's really, really common.

"Approximately 42.5 million Americans are infected with HPV and there are at least 13 million new infections annually" [0]

Interestingly, the article calls out HPV directly as a cause of an increase in anal cancers.

"While HPV-related cervical and vaginal cancer rates have decreased since 1999, rates for oropharyngeal and anal HPV-related cancers have increased."

[0] https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/the-hpv-vaccine-acc...
3 comments
UncleOxidant 3 days ago
Any idea what the percentage of teenagers who are getting the HPV vaccine is? I'm going to guess it's fairly low at this point given that there tend to be religious objections and also given the growing antivaxx sentiments.
link
strictnein 3 days ago
Slightly paraphrased: "As of 2024, 62.9% of adolescents ages 13-17 with up-to-date HPV vaccine series"

Scroll down to the see the per state numbers.

https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/the-hpv-vaccine-acc...

link
buescher 3 days ago
True, but “normal schedule” is hiding a bit of subtlety there: the hpv vaccine was recommended for women up to 26 at the time, so the oldest women who got it then would be pushing 50 now.
link
strictnein 3 days ago
Not sure if there's something more recent than this, but it was about 15.5% of adults aged 27-45.

It also notes this:

"Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the leading sexually transmitted infection in the United States, and 85% of sexually active individuals will be infected at some point in their lifetime"

So, if you're not vaccinated and have had multiple sexual partners, it is rather likely you have or have had HPV.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2024.2...

link
loeg 3 days ago
There are many strains, though, and the vaccine provides coverage against a few of the most harmful, so it's still probably worth getting even if you may have been exposed to a subset of strains.
link
loeg 3 days ago
> The group who got the HPV vaccine as part of their normal schedule are now just hitting their early 20s.

Uh, their 30s.

link