This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A lot more Utah boys are getting the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine than in the past, but their vaccination rate continues to lag far behind that of girls.
Neither boys nor girls are being vaccinated at the national average, which is a shame, public health professionals and doctors say.
"It's sad that physicians, in particular, are not really seeing it as a priority, so there are a lot of young people in Utah who are not being vaccinated," said David Cope, a family-practice physician in Bountiful.
"This is potentially a lifesaving vaccine, and there's no reason not to get it."
Most everyone who is ever sexually active — even with just one partner — gets the HPV virus at some point. For most, their immune systems throw off the virus. But in others, HPV can lead to a variety of cancers, including cervical, vaginal, anal, penile, throat and tongue cancer.
The Gardasil vaccine provides its best immunity when the series of three shots is given over six months' time, starting at age 11, 12 or in the early teens.
Those are ages, however, when parents may not want to think about their children's future sexual lives, making them reticent to talk with a medical provider, Cope said.
"A lot of people relate it to sexual transmission, so a lot of parents are thinking, 'My kids are not sexually active, so they don't need it,' " said Shannon Rice, who is managing the HPV media campaign for the Utah Department of Health.
But the department, which has had a federal grant to promote the HPV vaccine since 2013, stresses that it's about protecting children from future cancer.
"Let's get them protected and protected early," she said.
The campaign may have played a role in Utah's big gains in vaccination rates between 2013 and 2014.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2014 National Immunization Survey — Teen, 28.6 percent of Utah boys ages 13 to 17 had had at least one in the series of three shots. That's up from 11 percent the year before, moving Utah from the bottom of the state rankings to No. 45.
Nationally, the percentage of boys ages 13 to 17 who have had at least one shot rose to 41.7 percent, up from 34.6 percent the year before.
For girls, the vaccination rate in Utah was 59.2 percent last year, just lower than the national average of 60 percent. Both rates rose: Utah's was 44.3 percent and the national rate was 57.3 percent for girls in 2013.
The CDC got its figures from phone surveys with parents of nearly 21,000 teenagers last year, followed up by communication with the teenagers' medical providers.
Because of the sample sizes, many states' rates have wide margins of error. For instance, the CDC report indicates Utah's actual vaccination rate could be 8.3 percentage points higher or lower for girls and 8 points higher or lower for boys.
Rice, of the health department, said it's a common misconception that there's no need for the vaccine if a young person intends to marry young and for life. Vaccination can protect both oneself and one's future spouse, she noted.
And HPV can be spread by any intimate contact, not just by sexual intercourse.
Audrey Stevenson, director of family health services for the Salt Lake County Health Department, said one reason for low vaccination rates is that schools do not generally require the HPV vaccine. It's required in only two states and the District of Columbia.
The gap between boys and girls is a vestige, she said, of the fact that Gardasil was first federally approved and marketed for young women. It came out in 2006. Later studies showed the protective benefits for boys as well. Studies also have found that providing the vaccine does not encourage sexual activity, as early critics feared, Stevenson said.
While more and more providers are promoting the vaccine, she said, "we need to do a better job of educating in the medical and public health arena."
Twitter: @KristenMoulton