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TYLER – About 80% of the country's population will contract the human papilloma virus, or HPV, during its lifetime, making it the most common sexually transmitted infection.
On Thursday, the UT Tyler School of Nursing and the Fisch College of Pharmacy partnered with the Texas Medical Association and NetHealth to offer students free vaccines.
A total of 21 students were vaccinated during the clinic. Among them was rookie Vanessa Martinez.
"Just be proactive and prevent anything that could happen, take HPV if I have not received the vaccine," Martinez says.
HPV is usually spread through sexual contact. At its launch in 2006, the controversial vaccine against HPV was only recommended for girls and young women, but that has changed since.
"I did not know much about immunization," says UT Tyler student, JC Garcia.
Vaccination can now be given to boys and girls aged nine to 26 years old. The CDC recommends that most are vaccinated at 11 or 12 years of age.
"If you get the vaccine before you're 15, you only need two of those vaccines," says Dr. Li-Yu Mitchell, MD.
Dr. Mitchell is a member of the Texas Medical Association, in partnership with UT Tyler for Thursday's clinic.
"You can have external manifestations of HPV, genital warts and so on, so there are signs, but for the most part it's quiet."
Thirteen of more than 120 strains of HPV can cause cancer, including 99% of all cervical cancers. According to the CDC, Texas has seen about 2800 cases of HPV-associated cancers over a five-year period between 2009 and 2013.
A recent study from the Office of Health Affairs of the University of Texas shows that the HPV vaccination rate in Texas is lower than the national average. Less than half of Texan adolescents and only one third of young adults were vaccinated in 2016.
"In Texas and Eastern Texas, we have very high rates of HPV vaccine completion," says Dr. Mitchell, MD.
Older adolescents and sexually active young adults can still benefit from vaccination, although doctors recommend that they be given sooner. Teens and people in their twenties account for the majority of the 14 million new HPV infections each year.
© 2018 KYTX
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