The HPV vaccine appears to offer protection against an uncommon pediatric respiratory disease associated with the virus, according to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.
The disease, recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, occurs in some children who contract certain types of HPV from their mothers at around the time of birth. Children affected by the disease develop non-cancerous growths, or papillomas, in the respiratory tract. The condition makes it difficult to breathe and can be life-threatening. Children often need repeat surgeries to keep the airway clear.
For the study, researchers analyzed data compiled by a nationwide surveillance program in Australia developed to monitor the disease. In 2012, there were seven new cases of the disease reported. By 2016, the number of new cases dropped to one. All cases occurred in children of mothers who had not been vaccinated against HPV before pregnancy.
In Australia, 86 percent of girls and 79 percent of boys aged 14 to 15 years have received the first dose of the HPV vaccine. In the United States, just 60 percent of all teens between 13 and 17 years old have received a dose of the vaccine. In the U.S., 800 children develop recurrent respiratory papillomatosis every year.
Basil Donovan, MD, and Denton Callander, PhD, both of the Kirby Institute at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, who were not involved in the study, described the findings as encouraging in an accompanying editorial commentary.
"National and individual vaccine hesitancy remains common," wrote the physicians in the editorial commentary. "Unless these hesitant countries are persuaded by the ever-expanding benefits of quadrivalent HPV vaccination, millions of dollars in health spending along with countless unnecessary episodes of disease and death will occur in the coming decades."
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