Innovative Approaches to HPV Vaccination Promotion

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the differences between vaccines and vaccination. Effective vaccines can be developed for various diseases (e.g., the COVID-19 vaccines), but unless there is an effective public health strategy for vaccination, the public health benefits will never be fully realized. In fact, almost conversely related to the emergence of new vaccines, an unwillingness to utilize these life-saving strategies, fueled by organized misinformation campaigns, has reduced their effectiveness in conferring resistance to the spread of diseases such as COVID-19, measles, etc. The widely publicized “anti-vax” movement is but one of the challenges to public health that must be overcome if we are to realize the full promise of our growing repertoire of vaccines.

The HPV vaccine provides a perfect illustration of this problem. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the U.S. About 80 million people are currently infected with HPV, and approximately 14 million become infected each year. Infection with HPV is associated with virtually all cervical cancers as well as many other anogenital, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers, and has recently been linked to head and neck cancers. HPV costs the U.S.  USD 13.1 billion annually, with lower SES and minority groups, including African American and Latina women, most negatively impacted by HPV-associated diseases. However, despite these clear risks for the unvaccinated, HPV vaccination rates are suboptimal. While rates increased to 60–65% among youth by 2018, these numbers overall are less than desirable and are even lower for youth ages 13 and under, and among minority groups.

This Special Issue will present commentaries, original research papers, and reviews of the issues surrounding HPV vaccine promotion. The articles will highlight new and emerging innovative approaches to vaccine promotion that will have relevance to other public health challenges, including topics such as innovative messaging strategies, tailoring, cultural relevance, and digital messaging.

Prof. Dr. Michael L. Hecht
Guest Editor

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• HPV vaccination
• enhancing cultural relevance
• tailoring
• narrative health messages
• motivational interviewing
• digital message