Baker Institute expert: Texas can reduce HPV-related cancers

EXPERT ALERT

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Baker Institute expert: Texas can reduce HPV-related cancers

HOUSTON – (Dec. 2, 2016) – Texas must take key steps now to meet federal vaccination goals for the human papillomavirus (HPV), according to an expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. HPV is a sexually transmitted virus known to cause cancer.

Credit: shutterstock.com/Rice University

Kirstin Matthews, fellow in science and technology policy at the Baker Institute’s Center for Health and Biosciences, said improvements to the state’s vaccination records systems, ImmTrac, and increased education and awareness campaigns to and through health care providers, communities and schools can help Texas reach an 80 percent vaccination rate for boys and girls by 2020, as outlined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Currently, 41 percent of 13- to 17-year-old girls in Texas have received all three doses of the HPV vaccine, compared with 42 percent of all U.S. girls.

“An adolescent is four to five times more likely to vaccinate if the vaccination is recommended by a provider,” Matthews said. “Education is effective: El Paso County leads Texas with vaccination rates more than 10 percent higher than the state average, due to an awareness campaign targeting physicians, school districts and parents. In addition, improvements to ImmTrac could help the one-third of Texans who start but do not complete their HPV vaccination series.” The CDC also changed guidelines in October and now recommends a two-dose schedule for children under 14, instead of three, which should make it easier to complete the vaccination, she noted.

Matthews and Rice undergraduates Anita Alem and Jackie Olive created an infographic illustrating this public health challenge and opportunity for Texas: www.bakerinstitute.org/media/files/files/53eb10a9/CHB-Infographic-HPV-120116.pdf.

Matthews and Ronald DePinho, president of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, are welcoming leaders and clinicians from the CDC, Texas state government and MD Anderson at the Baker Institute this morning to discuss ways to combat HPV-associated cancers in the state. The event is part of the Medicine, Research and Society Policy Issues Series, a joint project of the Center for Health and Biosciences and MD Anderson.

In the United States, 80 million men and women — approximately one in four people — are currently infected with HPV. From 2008 to 2012, nearly 40,000 HPV-related cancers occurred annually in the U.S. Today highly effective HPV vaccines could easily reduce these numbers, Matthews said, but nationwide only 42 percent of girls and 28 percent of boys of ages 13 to 17 have received the vaccine — far below the 80 percent of American adolescents the CDC aims to reach.

To interview Matthews, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

-30-

Follow the Baker Institute via Twitter @BakerInstitute and @BakerCHB.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

HPV infographic: www.bakerinstitute.org/media/files/files/53eb10a9/CHB-Infographic-HPV-120116.pdf.

Matthews biography: http://bakerinstitute.org/experts/kirstin-rw-matthews.