Fears that vaccination against the virus that causes cervical cancer might encourage girls to become more sexually active are unfounded, suggests a survey of UK teenagers who have received or been offered the vaccine.
Nearly 80 per cent of girls questioned said that being vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV) reminded them of the risks of sexual contact. Only 14 per cent agreed that they might take more sexual risks because they had been vaccinated.
Loretta Brabin at the University of Manchester, UK, and her colleagues gave questionnaires to 553 girls offered the Cervarix vaccine in the UK between October 2007 and September 2008. “The vaccine actually made them more aware of the risks of sex,” she says.
Six per cent of girls were forbidden from being vaccinated by their parents. Of these, just under half said they wanted to receive the vaccine. “This is the first insight into how a girl decides whether the vaccine is important to her and who influences her decision,” says Brabin.
Journal reference: British Journal of Cancer, DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6605362
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