Estimating the time required to reach HPV vaccination targets across Europe

• Published in: Expert Review of Vaccines
• Main Authors: Ilias Gountas, Mohammed Aman, Deepak Alexander, Robert Hughes, Georgie Weston, Ugne Sabale
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2024
• Subjects: Cervical cancer; HPV; vaccine coverage rate; vaccination programs; Europe; Internal medicine; RC31-1245; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1080/14760584.2024.2402535; https://doaj.org/article/b817a3a1efa746c8ba3bde2bf690bb53

Background Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths in women. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for the CC elimination as a public health priority and has urged countries to achieve a 90% vaccine coverage rate of human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination among 15-year-old girls by 2030.Research design and methods Regression models were fitted to the WHO HPV vaccine coverage rate data to estimate when the 90% vaccine coverage rate target would be achieved in 22 European countries.Results The mean vaccine coverage rate of included countries was 62.2% (SD: 18.3). Nine countries (Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Ireland, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland) are expected to achieve a 90% vaccine coverage rate by 2030. Six countries (Estonia, Cyprus, Netherlands, France, Germany, and Italy) are expected to reach a 90% vaccine coverage rate between 2030 and 2040 whereas seven countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, and Slovenia) are not expected to achieve the 90% vaccine coverage rate target by 2040.Conclusion The majority of European countries are not on track to achieve 90% vaccine coverage rate by 2030. To achieve this, a significant increase in the annual vaccine coverage rate growth rate is required.