Expert Review of Vaccines (Sep 2024)
Estimating the time required to reach HPV vaccination targets across Europe
Abstract
Background Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths in women. The World Health Organization (WHO) has called for the CC elimination as a public health priority and has urged countries to achieve a 90% vaccine coverage rate of human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination among 15-year-old girls by 2030.Research design and methods Regression models were fitted to the WHO HPV vaccine coverage rate data to estimate when the 90% vaccine coverage rate target would be achieved in 22 European countries.Results The mean vaccine coverage rate of included countries was 62.2% (SD: 18.3). Nine countries (Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Ireland, Hungary, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and Switzerland) are expected to achieve a 90% vaccine coverage rate by 2030. Six countries (Estonia, Cyprus, Netherlands, France, Germany, and Italy) are expected to reach a 90% vaccine coverage rate between 2030 and 2040 whereas seven countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, and Slovenia) are not expected to achieve the 90% vaccine coverage rate target by 2040.Conclusion The majority of European countries are not on track to achieve 90% vaccine coverage rate by 2030. To achieve this, a significant increase in the annual vaccine coverage rate growth rate is required.
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