Doctors are reportedly hesitant to suggest teens be vaccinated for the human papillomavirus (HPV), stunting the rate of vaccinations, according to HealthDay.
A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 20.8 percent of boys and 53.8 percent of girls have received on dose to the vaccine's cycle. The findings were published in the Aug. 30 edition of the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
"We have continued to have increases in coverage for 14- to 17-year-olds for the Tdap vaccine and there is still progress on the meningococcal conjugate (MenACWY) vaccine, but our coverage is not moving forward with the HPV vaccine for girls, and coverage is low for the HPV vaccine for boys," said Dr. Melinda Wharton, deputy director of the CDC's National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases.
The CDC recommends boys and girls age 11 to 12 be vaccinated for HPV. According to HealthDay, the shots are a safe and effective way to prevent 70 percent of cervical cancers and 90 percent of vaginal warts.
Some parents are concerned the vaccine promotes sexual activity in their young children. However, Wharton believes it's important to protect them from such diseases.
"We need to protect them, because if we don't we are leaving them unnecessarily vulnerable to serious and deadly diseases that could be prevented, and we just can't do that, " Wharton said.
Wharton believes the vaccine should be treated like any other one routine vaccination, and the fact HPV shots prevent certain cancers.
"We don't have to get into a conversation about how pertussis is transmitted," she said. "We say what the vaccine is for and we make a recommendation, and if people have questions they can ask those questions. It is not necessary to get into long discussions about questions that people haven't even asked."
