According to researchers from the United States, some adolescent girls who get the HPV vaccine for preventing cervical cancer wrongly think they no longer need to practice safe sex.
The study, which was published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, demonstrated the need for better education about the vaccines and their limitations.
Merck’s Gardasil and GlaxoSmithKline’s Cervarix vaccines protect against strains of the humanpapilloma virus or HPV but do not prevent other forms of sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, gonorrhea, or human immunodeficiency virus or HIV that causes AIDS.
“Clinicians discussing HPV vaccination with girls and their mothers may need to emphasize the limitations of the vaccine and to specifically address that the vaccine does not prevent other sexually transmitted infections,” the team wrote.
Tags: adolescent girls, cervical cancer, HPV vaccination, HPV vaccine, safe sex



