Parental Attitudes on Sex, Costs Stymie HPV Vaccinations

Parental concern that getting vaccinated for the human papillomavirus may increase teenagers’ sexual activity is among the attitudes discouraging use of the inoculation to prevent cervical cancer, researchers found.

Seven years after the Merck & Co.’s Gardasil vaccine was approved in the U.S. for girls to prevent the sexually transmitted virus, barriers ranging from parents’ views to cost to lack of information have held back vaccination against HPV, the report said. The research, an analysis of 55 studies from 2009, was published in JAMA Pediatrics.