We have ‘room’ to vax kids against cancer

Merck-manufactured vaccine. Now the jab is capable of fighting nine strains of HPV and the cancers they cause, up from four when it was first approved.

By Billy Arnold

When it comes to vaccinating kids against cancer, Wyoming is underperforming.

And while Teton County’s vaccination rates are above the state’s, health professionals here would like to see those numbers jump in Jackson Hole. While 36% of 13- to 17-year-olds in Wyoming were vaccinated against human papillomavirus in 2021, Teton County isn’t far ahead; only 43% of teens had been inoculated.

“There’s room for vaccinating more people in that younger population,” said Jhala French, a nurse with the Teton County Health Department who coor dinates the county’s vaccination efforts.

When it comes to protecting people against HPV, health experts say getting vaccinated when you’re younger is better, particularly because the cancercausing virus is transmitted through sexual fluids.

“The most important demographic that should be getting this vaccine is our 9- to 12-year-olds,” said Deanna Lee Kepka, the founder and director of the Intermountain West HPV Vaccination Coalition. Kepka is also a scientist at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute.

“You want to do it before any sexual experience at all,” Kepka said.

Preventing cancer

The HPV vaccine, Gardasil 9, is one of only two vaccines that can combat cancer.

The other is the hepatitis B vaccine, which can help prevent certain types of liver cancer.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection, estimated to infect some 43 million Americans annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nine times out of 10, the virus will go away on its own within two years. When it doesn’t it can cause a range of health problems. Genital warts, yes. But also some deadly cancers that affect both men and women.

Most people are exposed to HPV when they’re in their teens or early 20s. But it can take 10 or 15 years for the virus to develop into cancer, and detecting HPV is difficult.

The virus is typically found only when people develop genital warts, women get an abnormal Pap test result during cervical cancer screening — or when someone develops cancer later in life.

Health officials say the best way to combat HPV is to prevent it, which is where the vaccine comes in.

Gardasil was first approved in 2006 for women and girls, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has spent years approving a new version of the

Over 100 million doses have been administered safely, the CDC says. Clinical trials also showed that the most recent version of the vaccine was nearly 100% effective in preventing cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancers and precancers caused by HPV, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“In the U.S. we have about 37,000 cancers that occur each year that could be prevented with vaccination,” Kepka said.

Low vaccination rates

But uptake is still slower than health officials would like, particularly in the Mountain West.

HPV vaccination rates in Wyoming’s teens, for example, are the second lowest in the country, behind only Mississippi. Teton County ranks seventh out of 23 counties in the state.

“That is incredibly low,” Kepka said of Wyoming’s vaccination rate. “There’s so much need.”

Part of the problem, Kepka said, is that the state’s medical providers aren’t all “on board.”

“If you don’t have providers strongly recommending this vaccine, parents aren’t just going to like volunteer to be like, ‘Oh, I want to get it,’” Kepka said.

She said it’s not clear why, exactly, Wyoming providers aren’t on board. Some more convincing may be needed that the vaccine is a safe and effective way to prevent cancer, she said.

But Wyoming’s low vaccination rates could also be due to how rural the Equality State is.

“Many clinics say that it’s not cost effective for them to stock the HPV vaccine,” Kepka said. “So then they’re

Wyoming lags U.S. in HPV vaccinations for teens

Only 48% of 13- to 17-year-olds in Wyoming were vaccinated against HPV in 2021. That’s the 49th lowest rate of vaccination in the nation. Mississippi is the only state below Wyoming, with 32.7% of its 13- to 17-year-olds vaccinated as of 2021.

HPV

Continued from 6E asking parents to go to county health departments, and that’s another trip to get it.”

Get jabbed early

One misperception working against vaccination efforts is the association some parents make between the HPV vaccine and sexual activity. There’s a mistaken belief that one leads to the other. Studies, however, indicate that people who are vaccinated are no more likely to be sexually active than people who don’t, Kepka said.

“Giving it at the youngest age is really most helpful because it’s so far from puberty, parents tend to be more accepting of it,” Kepka said.

Kepka said the highest incidence of HPV in the U.S. is among teenagers, and people are most often exposed to HPV around the time of their first sexual experience, which can precede sex itself.

The virus isn’t just transmitted through intercourse, Kepka said.

“It could just be the exchange of bodily fluids,” she said. What if you’re older?

The vaccine is approved for anyone 9 to 45 years old.

But it’s recommended only for people who are between 11 and 26 years old.

“Through age 26, still get it,” Kepka said. “No questions asked.”

People younger than 11 and older