Too Few Teens Get HPV Vaccine, Health Department Says

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - Too few teens are getting the HPV vaccine, leaving them at risk for several types of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The CDC released data from the 2014 National Immunization Survey, which showed 4 of out 10 girls and 6 out of 10 boys, age 13 to 17, have not started the recommended HPV vaccine series.

Minnesota is doing slightly better, but health officials say the state is not where it wants to be.

"These vaccines prevent diseases that can literally kill our children," mother Jeanne Dobson said.

Dobson elected to have her son Gavin vaccinated for HPV a few months ago, when he turned 11.

Both of Doug Hernandez's sons were given the vaccine as well.

"The HPV vaccine can prevent cancer," Hernandez said. "That's sort of the beginning and the end of the story for me."

But they are in the minority.

"We're not where we want to be," Lisa Randall, a policy specialist with the Minnesota Department of Health, said.

Randall said 67 percent of girls and 44 percent of boys ages 13 to 17 have had one dose. And while the state falls slightly above the national numbers, she calls the figures concerning.

"The cancers that HPV causes are very real and very common," Randall said. "About 26,000 people a year in America get cancer because of HPV."

And she reports roughly 80 percent of women in the U.S. will have a HPV infection. That generally means it will affect the same amount of men. The HPV virus causes several types of cancer, with the most common being cervical.

"It's really just crushing to think of the burden and the family tragedies that have happened because of this disease that didn't have to happen," Randall said.

Dobson has seen it firsthand. She hopes other parents will give their kids the protection they didn't have growing up.

"I know a lot of people personally who are dealing with the effects of HPV and what cervical cancer can do, and how dangerous it is, and I don't want my children or my children's partners to ever have to deal with that," Dobson said.

There are two other vaccines recommended at ages 11 and 12: meningococcal and Tdap. Both are required to begin in seventh grade in Minnesota. Health officials recommend getting the HPV vaccine at the same time, although it is not required.