Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan 25;11(2):258.
doi: 10.3390/vaccines11020258.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on HPV Vaccinations in Switzerland and Greece: Road to Recovery

Ilias Gountas  1 , Andrea Favre-Bulle  2 , Kunal Saxena  3 , Jessica Wilcock  4 , Hannah Collings  4 , Stina Salomonsson  5 , Anastasios Skroumpelos  1 , Ugne Sabale  5
Affiliations

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on HPV Vaccinations in Switzerland and Greece: Road to Recovery

Ilias Gountas et al. Vaccines (Basel). .

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruptions to healthcare, including reduced administration of routinely recommended HPV vaccines in a number of European countries. Because the extent and trends of accumulated vaccine dose deficits may vary by country, decision-makers need country-specific information regarding vaccine deficits to plan effective catch-up initiatives. To address this knowledge gap in Switzerland and Greece, this study used a previously published COVID-19 recovery calculator and historical vaccine sales data to quantify the cumulative number of missed doses and the catch-up rate required to clear the deficit in Switzerland and Greece. The resultant cumulative deficit in HPV doses for Switzerland and Greece were 24.4% and 21.7%, respectively, of the total number of doses disseminated in 2019. To clear the dose deficit by December 2025, monthly vaccination rates must be increased by 6.3% and 6.0% compared to 2019 rates in Switzerland and Greece, respectively. This study demonstrates that administration rates of routine HPV vaccines decreased significantly among Swiss and Greek adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic and that a sustained increase in vaccination rates is necessary to recover the HPV dose deficits identified and to prevent long-term public health consequences.

Keywords: COVID-19; Greece; HPV; Switzerland; adolescents; routine vaccines.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

I.G. and A.S. are employees of MSD, Greece; A.F.-B. is an employee of MSD, Switzerland; S.S. and U.S. are employees of MSD Sweden who may own stock, stock options, or both in Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA. K.S. is an employee of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, who may own stock, stock options, or both in the company. J.W. and H.C. are employees of Adelphi Values PROVE™. Adelphi Values PROVE™ was compensated by MSD for the development of the manuscript. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants, patents received or pending, or royalties.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic outline of the analysis for each country.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Deficits in vaccine doses administered due to the COVID-19 pandemic and model predictions for clearing the cumulative HPV deficit by the end of 2024 in (a) Switzerland and (b) Greece.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Date at which cumulative missed HPV doses reaches zero according to catch-up rate in (a) Switzerland and (b) Greece.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. De Martel C., Georges D., Bray F., Ferlay J., Clifford G.M. Global burden of cancer attributable to infections in 2018: A worldwide incidence analysis. Lancet Glob. Health. 2020;8:e180–e190. doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30488-7. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Joura E., Giuliano A., Iversen O.-E., Bouchard C., Mao C., Mehlsen J., Moreira E.M., Jr., Ngan Y., Petersen L.K., Lazcano-Ponce E., et al. A 9-valent HPV vaccine against infection and intraepithelial neoplasia in women. N. Engl. J. Med. 2015;372:711–723. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1405044. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Paavonen J., Naud P., Salmerón J., Wheeler C.M., Chow S.-N., Apter D., Kitchener H., Castellsague X., Teixeira J.C., Skinner S.R., et al. Efficacy of human papillomavirus (HPV)-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine against cervical infection and precancer caused by oncogenic HPV types (PATRICIA): Final analysis of a double-blind, randomised study in young women. Lancet. 2009;374:301–314. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61248-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Garland S., Hernandez-Avila M., Wheeler C., Perez G., Harper D., Leodolter S., Tang G., Ferris D., Steben M., Bryan J., et al. Quadrivalent vaccine against human papillomavirus to prevent anogenital diseases. N. Engl. J. Med. 2007;356:1928–1943. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa061760. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bonanni P., Faivre P., Lopalco P.L., Joura E., Bergroth T., Varga S., Gemayel N., Drury R. The status of human papillomavirus vaccination recommendation, funding, and coverage in WHO Europe countries (2018–2019) Expert Rev. Vaccines. 2020;19:1073–1083. doi: 10.1080/14760584.2020.1858057. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources