Over 250 million vaccines for HPV are given every year worldwide. With this in mind there is a global shortage of the vaccine since it is such a big concern as it is sexually spread. There has only ever been 3 total vaccines for the disease and 2 current ones that are currently active. A total of 79 million have been infected with HPV with almost 15 million new cases each year. These are stunning statistics that I definitely would have underestimated without prior knowledge. However it is also not widespread known that almost everyone will be infected with some form of HPV in their lifetime whether they know it or not.
They key to this illness is the fact that is will remain in population as long as women remain sexually active… lol. okay. duh. However, the rate and prevalence increases as women become over the age of 25. This was not explained very well so this statistic confused me, why this age? I would figure tit would be a lower age. In population today it is studied and known for its very slow rate of evolving or even mutating. This makes it very predictable as well as its vaccine.
Past articles discussing this issue at hand related the illness to a type-specific illness and vaccination after conducting large clinical trials but one thing they have did conclude was that both vaccines the bivalent and quadrivalent are effective against their specific strains. While the incidence of HPV is favorably high, this parallels the fact that it is spread via direct contact aka sexual intercourse. The vaccines available today are immunogenic, this meaning that it is very rare that a vaccinated person does not develop antibody responses fairly quickly. The high efficiency that is associated among the current and past clinical trials that have been conducted proved this minimum antibody protection. (older article) In comparison to what past articles have concluded and what is believed currently in 2020, not much has changed with the vaccine other than controversies and new “politically” accepted notions regarding the vaccine as a whole. This could be due to social media, changing healthcare, etc. However, I believe these aspects are very important for the world we live in today especially in the field of medicine.
Something I found very interesting was the fact that different countries experience the HPV vaccine differently, I think this is very intriguing. What is this due to? Health standards? Public thought and acceptance to vaccines? The availability of vaccines? Im curious! I couldn’t find anymore information on this as the author did not expand but this reminded me of gaps that are found within vaccines or antibiotics in general that make me question their use. How do their negative sequelae’s differ from ours and what makes them differ? Most current studies do not focus on this but the individual affects of HPV and its linkage to the menstrual cycle.
MicroBio 