Literature review of HPV vaccine delivery strategies: considerations for school- and non-school based immunization program

Abstract

School-based vaccination is becoming a more widely considered method of delivering HPV immunizations to an adolescent population; however, many countries do not have experience with delivering adolescent vaccines or school-based programs. This literature review will summarize the experiences from countries implementing non-health facility-based and health facility-based vaccination programs and assess HPV vaccine coverage. In October 2012, a systematic search in PubMed for studies related to the evaluation of national/regional, pilot, or demonstration HPV immunization programs that worked within existing health system yielded nine articles, representing seventeen countries. School-based programs achieved high HPV vaccination coverage rates in 9 to 13-year-old girls across the different studies and geographic locations, suggesting non-health facility-based programs are possible for HPV vaccine introduction. Grade-based, compared to age-based, eligibility criteria may be easier to implement in school settings. More studies are needed to explore the methods to standardize estimates for HPV vaccine coverage so that programs can be appropriately evaluated.

Keywords: HPV vaccine; School-based vaccination; Vaccine delivery strategies.