Complete HPV vaccine ｜ Why should the age of HPV vaccination be limited？ Expert interpretation

Cctv news(Reporter Kan Chunyu, Lu Yuanyuan): HPV vaccine has entered the China market for five years, but the public still has many questions about this only vaccine that can prevent cancer. CCTV specially launched a series of programs called "Complete HPV Vaccine" to connect Qiao Youlin, a professor from the School of Medicine and Public Health of Peking Union Medical College and a member of the cancer prevention expert group of WHO Director-General, to dispel the doubts for readers.

Why should we limit the age of HPV vaccination?

Qiao Youlin:WHO and international agencies have determined that the best age for immunization against HPV vaccine is the age before having sex, which is defined as 9 to 14 years old. As for the age at which countries start vaccination, it is up to each country to decide according to its culture. The Department of Women and Children of National Health Commission once entrusted Professor Zhao Gengli of Peking University No.1 Hospital to take the lead, and many scientists participated in it. In 2017, the guide made it very clear that according to the cultural and historical background of China, it is recommended to vaccinate girls aged 13-15 with HPV vaccine, which is more appropriate in terms of cost and benefit.

Who suggests that people under 15 must be vaccinated with HPV, because she has not had sex yet. At this time, vaccination is the best. People over the age of 15 are not used as immunization programs, because many people may have sex. For this part of the population, individuals are willing to vaccinate, but to be included in the national basic immunization plan, the most cost-effective and best protection rate for everyone is to vaccinate children.

Recently, The Lancet published the results of a real-world study on people who have been vaccinated with HPV for 13 years. The data show that the effective rate of vaccination against cervical cancer is 34% and the effective rate of preventing severe cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN3) is 39%. If you are vaccinated at the age of 12 ~ 13, these two figures are as high as 87% and 97% respectively.HPV vaccine claims to have a protection rate of nearly 100%. Why is it inconsistent with the research data?

Qiao Youlin:The protective effect of cervical cancer vaccine is very high, which can reach nearly 100%. It is the crystallization of modern science and technology.

However, the efficacy test is a clinical experiment. In order to see its effect, it is used in normal people. That is a real-world study, which focuses on the effect. The effect is always worse than the efficacy test. Because there are many other factors involved. For example, the efficacy test is completely designed according to the clinic, and all people who have been infected before should be excluded, and many interferences should be excluded. Under such strict control conditions, we can see 99% or even 100% of the protective efficacy.