[V]ermont’s teenagers are more likely to have been vaccinated than their national counterparts, according to a new survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Vermont Department of Health released results from the federal agency Wednesday showing that 96 percent of Vermont teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17 are fully vaccinated against chickenpox, compared with 83 percent nationally.
Fully 99 percent of Vermont teens had at least one of their two shots to vaccinate against chickenpox in 2015 — the highest rate in the country — and 97 percent were vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella, according to the CDC.
Vaccination against hepatitis B was 96.1 percent in 2015; vaccination against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis was at 95.8 percent; and vaccination against meningococcal disease was 84.4 percent.
But Chris Finley, the immunization program manager for the Vermont Department of Health, said the state needs to keep working with federal partners and health care providers to increase vaccination against human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that can lead to cancer.
The CDC first recommended that girls be vaccinated against HPV in 2006, when its link to cervical cancer was becoming known, and first recommended that boys be vaccinated in 2011. Since those dates, immunization among teens has risen but remains far below vaccinations against other viruses.
In 2015, about 69 percent of girls and 66 percent of boys between the ages of 13 and 17 had received at least one HPV vaccination shot, according to the CDC. Full vaccination takes three doses. But only 54 percent of girls and 41 percent of boys had received all three shots.
Finley said HPV has now been linked to six types of cancer, including penile cancer, mouth and throat cancer, and anal cancer. She said vaccination rates among girls have been going up slowly but steadily since 2006, and vaccination among boys is going up more quickly.
Finley said some parents resist the HPV vaccine out of fear that their children will start having sex earlier, but she said there is no evidence to link the vaccination to increased or earlier sexual activity. She said families also may have trouble getting transportation to return for all three doses, and that teenagers at the appropriate age may have busy schedules.
“What I see is we’ve got a really safe and effective vaccine that can prevent a number of different cancers, and we’re not getting the optimal protection because we’re not fully using it,” Finley said.
Cancer is the leading cause of death in Vermont, according to the Department of Health, and is one of four preventable chronic diseases that officials say cause more than 50 percent of deaths in the state.
“Cancer in my mind is nothing to be messed with, and the type of cancer we’re talking about, the type of treatment is not quick and easy,” Finley said. “The idea that there’s a vaccine that can prevent six types of cancer, that’s pretty important to me.”
Vermonters with health insurance can obtain vaccinations with no out-of-pocket cost at their doctors’ offices, according to Finley. Those without insurance or a doctor can get vaccinations for free through the Health Department, she said.
(Correction: A previous version of this story conflated full vaccination for chickenpox with “all required vaccines.”)