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ACOG updates recommendations for HPV vaccine
Posted Sept. 6, 2010
Physicians should vaccinate 11- and 12-year-old girls against the human papillomavirus to prevent cervical cancer later in life, according to new recommendations by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The guidelines, issued Aug. 23 and published in the September Obstetrics & Gynecology, note that the HPV vaccine can be administered to girls as young as 9. Girls and women 13 to 26 who never were immunized also should be vaccinated against the virus (link).
About 12,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with cervical cancer every year, and nearly 4,000 die from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
GlaxoSmithKline's bivalent vaccine Cervarix and Merck's quadrivalent immunization Gardasil protect against the cancer-causing HPV strains 16 and 18. ACOG suggests that physicians counsel patients to use contraception until the vaccination period is complete. If pregnancy occurs during the immunization period, the series should be stopped then resumed after birth.
HPV testing is not recommended before girls and women are vaccinated. ACOG said doctors should use Pap tests to screen for cervical cancer in all women starting at age 21.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/09/06/prbf0906.htm.
