Guidance on HPV vaccination in EU countries: focus on boys, people living with HIV and 9-valent HPV vaccine introduction

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has published new guidance on the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in EU countries, covering the following areas:

• efficacy/effectiveness of the 9-valent HPV vaccine
• efficacy/effectiveness of HPV vaccination in people living with HIV
• efficacy/ effectiveness of HPV vaccination in males
• the cost-effectiveness of expanding the HPV vaccination programme to include males

Key conclusions of the guidance include:

• The 9-valent HPV vaccine is efficacious in preventing persistent HPV infection and cervical high-grade or worse lesions caused by the additional HPV types 31, 33, 45, 52 and 58 covered by the vaccine and HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 in females aged 16–26 years.
• The quadrivalent HPV vaccine reduces the risk of persistent HPV infections, genital warts and high-grade anal intraepithelial lesions in males aged 16–26 years (including men who have sex with men), while data on the efficacy of the bivalent HPV vaccine against HPV infection and HPV-related disease in males were not found.
• There was no direct evidence of the efficacy of HPV vaccination on HPV-related clinical outcomes in people living with HIV for the period covered by the systematic review, although low quality evidence of efficacy of the quadrivalent HPV vaccine against HPV persistent infection and against oral HPV infection became available in 2018 and 2019.
• Cost-effectiveness analysis is sensitive to context, and context-specific studies should ideally be conducted to inform decision-making in this area.

Source: ECDC, 30 March 2020