![\"HPV-induced](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/e678d1d1-7cf1-4469-b6d9-03cdbe4959f9.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe virus, commonly known as HPV, is responsible for the most widespread sexually transmitted infection in the world but current vaccination drives only target girls.<\/p>\n
Although the infection can remain without any symptoms and resolve naturally within two years in 90pc of \u00adcases, its persistence can lead to cancer in some people.<\/p>\n
HPV-induced cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in \u00adwomen, with nearly 660,000 new cases and 350,000 deaths every year.<\/p>\n
HPV vaccines, shown to be effective in minimising disease spread and cancer risk, are currently offered and recommended in 147 countries.<\/p>\n
But the best vaccination strategy to eradicate HPV-induced cervical cancer remains debatable, researchers say.<\/p>\n
Now scientists have come up with a new mathematical model to help public health officials design more effective HPV vaccination programmes.<\/p>\n
Cervical cancer is one of the few cancers effectively prevented by vaccines<\/p>\n
The model, detailed in a new study published in the journal Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, assessed whether a recent HPV vaccination programme in South Korea was enough to control cervical cancer.<\/p>\n
Researchers found that vaccinating boys against HPV, along with ongoing efforts to immunise girls, could be key.<\/p>\n
\u201cCervical cancer is one of the few cancers effectively prevented by vaccines,\u201d Soyoung Park, lead author of the study from the University of Maryland, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was important to check if the recent government programme for offering vaccines is going to be enough to effectively control the disease in Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new model incorporates demographic and South Korean cervical cancer data from 1999 to 2020 to predict how HPV transmits across a population.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
HPV-induced cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women. Stock image: Getty<\/p>\n
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Wednesday, December 24th<\/p>\n
South Korea\u2019s national immunisation programme, which started in 2016, vaccinates about 80pc of the nation\u2019s girls aged 12-17, while another 30,000 women aged 18-26 receive \u201ccatch-up vaccinations\u201d annually.<\/p>\n
The model shows these policies are insufficient to eliminate HPV and related cancers in the country.<\/p>\n
To completely eradicate cervical cancer, researchers estimate that the immunisation drive must cover 99pc of women in the country. But vaccinating boys \u201creduces the pressure of having to vaccinate a large proportion of females\u201d, Dr Abba Gumel, another study author, said.<\/p>\n
The study proposes immunising 65pc of the boys in the 12-17 group while maintaining the current 80pc female vaccination coverage. Doing this will eliminate HPV-related cancers in South Korea within 60-70 years, the study estimates. \u201cThe way to protect them is to surround them with a sea of immunity,\u201d Dr Gumel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The virus, commonly known as HPV, is responsible for the most widespread sexually transmitted infection in the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60,51264],"class_list":["post-208359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-the-independent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}