HPV human papillomavirus can cause cancer in women and men later in life. Eight out of ten people will become infected with HPV at one or more times in their lives. The HPV vaccination has been offered to girls in the National Immunization Program since 2010 in the year they turn 13. Since this year, the vaccination age has been lowered to the year they turn 10.
Catch-up campaign
To give boys the opportunity to protect themselves against HPV, an extensive catch-up campaign will take place this year and next. This spring, boys born in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2012, as well as girls from those years who have not yet been vaccinated against HPV, are invited. In early 2023, teenagers from 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, and 2013 will be invited.
Turnout figures
The minimum turnout this spring ranged from 33.8% among boys born in 2004 to 45.5% among boys born in 2008. Of the boys born in 2012, at least 42.8% have passed the vaccination. At least 49.2% of girls born in 2012 have received their first HPV vaccination.
The turnout is actually higher, but it cannot be determined precisely because some of the parents and young people have not given permission to share the vaccination data with personal data with the RIVM. As a result, approximately 10% of the vaccinations are submitted anonymously and RIVM does not know whether it concerns a boy or girl and in which year he or she was born. Therefore, these figures per birth year or gender are an underestimate of the actual turnout.
In previous years, the turnout for the first HPV vaccination was around 60% in the middle of the year, with the exception of 2020 when the group vaccinations in the spring were postponed due to COVID-19. Jeanne-Marie Hament, program manager of the National Immunization Programme, is optimistic: ‘The HPV vaccination is new for boys. Some young people and their parents then need more time to make a vaccination choice. In addition, the invitation for the HPV vaccination fell almost simultaneously with the invitation for a corona vaccination. For those who didn’t want to or couldn’t get the vaccination this spring, there will be another time this fall to protect yourself against HPV.’
HPV-related cancer
The human papilloma virus can cause cancer later in life in the mouth and pharynx, the anus, labia, vagina, cervix and penis. An estimated 1,100 women and 400 men are diagnosed with HPV each year in the Netherlands. About 5,500 women are diagnosed with ‘pre-cancerous cervical cancer’ every year.