A little over 25 percent of teenage girls aged 13 to 17, surveyed from October 2007 to February 2008 said they received at least one dose of GARDASIL, the HPV vaccination, the Centers for Disease Control said Thursday.
About 23 percent of those said they completed the full three-dose treatment.
While the CDC said the results are encouraging, they caution that more needs to be done to help protect the remaining 75 percent of teens at risk and complete the three-dose series.
The reason, they say is because HPV is prevalent and can have significant consequences. Approximately 80 percent of women will get HPV in their lifetime. For most women, the condition goes away on its own. But some, certain high-risk types of HPV, if unrecognized and untreated, can lead to cervical cancer.
The CDC reports that about 30 women every day are diagnosed with cervical cancer in the United States. The vaccine reportedly protects against HPV types 16 and 18, which account for approximately 70 percent of cervical cancers.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends GARDASIL to protect girls and women aged 11 to 26 years against the HPV types that cause the most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts.