Ontwikkelingen omtrent de HPV-vaccinatie

Conflict of interest: none declared. Financial support: the study into HPV vaccination was financially supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw).

• Vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV) has been included in the national Vaccination Programme of the Netherlands for 12-year-old girls since 2010.

• Vaccination coverage for the birth cohort of 1997 was 56.; there is a gradual increase in uptake.

• Continuous safety monitoring brought no new unknown serious side effects to light; many girls suffered from transient symptoms such as painful arm, fatigue and headache.

• After the current vaccines that protect against HPV types 2 and 4 types, respectively and induce some cross protection, vaccines are being developed that can induce broader protection.

• HPV vaccination of 12-year-old girls is cost-effective, even for relatively low vaccination coverage.

• The potential protection of HPV vaccination extends beyond prevention of cervical cancer by preventing other oncological manifestations of HPV infection in women as well as men and genital warts.

• The preventive HPV vaccines do not appear to be effective in treating existing abnormalities.