A recent study suggests the HPV vaccine might be just as effective with two doses instead of three. The vaccine, which protects against genital warts and certain kinds of cervical cancers, is currently given in a three-dose regimen over the course of six months.
The disadvantages of the current vaccine
Researchers say the vaccine is inconvenient to get and it’s expensive.
“It is one of the most expensive routinely used childhood vaccines,” Dr. Simon R.M. Dobson, of the of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, told FoxNews.com.
To see if cost could be reduced, Dobson and a team of researchers looked into the effectiveness of the vaccines.
“High up on the list was the question about two doses,” she said. “The question we’re asking is, does that second dose given right after, does it really make that much difference? Or does the first dose tell the immune memory what to do enough?” Dobson said.
Interesting results
Dobson and her team looked at the medical records of 830 Canadian patients. The health records of girls who received three shots were compared to those who had two shots.
“Sure enough, for all of the four genotypes in the vaccine, the four types of HPV virus being protected against, the two doses in girls was no worse than the three doses in young women, out to 36 months,” Dobson said.
Other vaccines doses changed
In the past, other vaccines have gone from a three dose schedule to two.
“Both the hepatitis A and B vaccine in teens and above are being used now in two-dose schedules,” Dobson added. “They started off as three-dose and became two-dose schedules because similar studies to this one were done.”
While the results are promising, Dobson says more testing will need to be done before the number of vaccines is reduced.
