Indiana is not the healthiest state in the union. In fact, the Hoosier state ranked 40th in overall health in the most recent Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
The situation need not be permanent. The state can work proactively to address its citizens’ high rates of smoking, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and infant mortality. It can also do more to prevent the tragedy of preventable diseases caused by HPV — human papillomavirus. The sexually transmitted virus causes most cases of cervical cancer, as well as other cancers. HPV can be prevented through a three-dose series of vaccinations delivered, ideally, before a person is sexually active. The vaccine works most effectively when received at 11 or 12 years of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The HPV vaccine became available to the public eight years ago. Yet, a CDC report shows that Indiana’s immunization levels remain low. Only a third of Hoosier teenage girls and just 18 percent of boys have started the vaccination series, Indiana State Department of Health officials told CNHI newspapers reporter Maureen Hayden. The state ranks 34th nationally in HPV vaccination rates. That is sad. HPV is one of the most common and treatable sexually transmitted infections but also one of the most deadly, given its potential to cause cervical and other cancers.
The Indiana Vaccination Coalition aims to reverse that trend. The nonprofit group of health-care providers plans to increase HPV vaccination rates. They face obstacles. The inoculation is not mandatory for public-school enrollment in Indiana. Also, high-profile misinformation about the vaccine’s safety overshadows CDC testing that shows it is nearly 100-percent effective with no serious side effects.
The largest roadblock to widespread vaccination is the uncomfortable topic of HPV’s cause, sexual activity, and the ages of the primary immunization target group, pre-teens. Doctors are reluctant to initiate a discussion with the even more reluctant mothers and fathers of a young patient. “It’s an uncomfortable conversation to have with parents of 11- and 12-year-olds, who are thinking, ‘My child isn’t sexually active. Why do they need this?’” said Lisa Robertson, director of the coalition.
Those conversations need to occur anyway. The coalition is meeting this summer with doctors and health professionals to promote HPV immunization. The group hopes to assuage parents’ worries by citing studies showing that vaccinated teens are not more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior.
Thirty-thousand deaths from cervical cancer each year could be prevented if 80 percent of teens are immunized, the CDC says. Cervical cancer claimed the life of Noblesville resident Kirk Forbes’ daughter at age 23. The diagnosis came in 2007, just after the HPV vaccine’s approval but too late for it to save her life. “If someone had come to me and said, ‘We have a vaccine to protect your child from cancer, would you like it?’ I would’ve said, ‘Absolutely,’” Forbes told Hayden.
Sue Errington, a state representative from Muncie, intends to push a bill in the 2015 session of the General Assembly requiring Indiana schools to broaden information on the HPV vaccine to parents of sixth-graders. Should this lifesaving idea be passed? Absolutely.