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HPV Vaccine May Provide Men with Herd Immunity against Oral HPV Infections

, by DCEG Staff

Infographic illustrating: between 2009-2016, oral HPV infections among unvaccinated men dropped 37%.
Credit: National Cancer Institute

The potential benefits of vaccines are twofold: In addition to directly protecting those who get the vaccine, they also protect those who don’t. The latter, a phenomenon called herd immunity, occurs as more and more people get vaccinated, further restricting the ease with which the disease-causing germ can spread.

Now a new study suggests that the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine may be providing men with herd immunity against HPV infections of the throat. Oral HPV infections cause over 70% of all oropharyngeal cancers in the United States, and rates of these cancers in men have skyrocketed over the past several decades.

Read the full NCI Cancer Currents blog post.

Reference:
Chatuvedi AK, et al. Prevalence of Oral HPV Infection in Unvaccinated Men and Women in the United States, 2009-2016. JAMA. Sept 10, 2019. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2019.10508. [Epub before print].
 

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