UHS Offers HPV Vaccine

Harvard University Health Services (UHS) will offer female students vaccinations to protect against cervical cancer and genital warts.

The vaccines will be available starting October 1.

The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Gardasil vaccine, manufactured by Merck, this June. The vaccine protects against various strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) which an FDA press release called “the most common sexually-transmitted infection in the United States,” affecting half of all sexually active Americans.

The FDA claimed that the vaccine is 100% effective against the two strains of HPV which cause 70% of cervical cancers and is also effective against the two strains which are responsible for 90% of genital warts in men and women.

Immunization requires a series of three injections over six months. According to UHS Director David S. Rosenthal ’59, UHS will charge students $154 per shot. The same shot costs $120 at Mass. General Hospital, according to the hospital’s website.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend vaccination of girls at 11 or 12 to ensure blanket protection before the children become sexually active but advise that women up to the age of 26 should still receive the vaccine whether sexually active or not. The vaccine will have no effect on women who have already come into contact with the virus.

The vaccine is not currently licensed for use on men.

Rosenthal wrote in an email that the initial series of the vaccine will likely give protection against the virus for five years.

“Most experts are projecting that a booster shot will be necessary after that time period,” he wrote.

—Staff writer John R. Macartney can be reached at jmacartn@fas.harvard.edu.