Epidemiologic Profile of Type-Specific Human Papillomavirus Infection after Initiation of HPV Vaccination

Abstract

Organized human papillomavirus vaccination (OHPV) in Japan was introduced in 2010 for girls aged 12–16 years who were born in 1994 or later. The rate of OHPV coverage was 70–80%. However, after suspension of the government vaccination recommendation, the coverage dramatically decreased. We aim to investigate the change in prevalence of HPV infection after the initiation of HPV vaccination. We recruited females aged 20–21 years attending public cervical cancer screening from 2014 to 2017 fiscal years (April 2014 to March 2018). Residual Pap test specimens were collected for HPV testing. We compared the prevalence of HPV type-specific infection between women registered in 2014 (born in 1993–1994, including the pre-OHPV generation) and registered in 2015–2017 (born in 1994–1997, the OHPV generation). We collected 2379 specimens. The vaccination coverage figures were 30.7%, 86.6%, 88.4% and 93.7% (p < 0.01) from 2014 to 2017, respectively. The prevalence of HPV16/18 infection significantly decreased from 1.3% in 2014 to 0% in 2017 (p = 0.02). The three most prevalent types were HPV52, 16 and 56 in 2014, and HPV52, 58 and 56 in 2015–2017, respectively. HPV16 and 33 infection rates decreased. On the other hand, the HPV58 infection rate was obviously increased after OHPV from 0.3% to 2.1%. Our study demonstrates that the prevalence of HPV16/18 infection dramatically decreased and the profile of type-specific HPV infection was changed after OHPV.

The efficacy of human papillomavirus vaccination in young Japanese girls: the interim results of the OCEAN study

“…HPV vaccine is known to exert a cross-protection effect against other types of HPV, except for HPV 16 and 18. 5 , 8 It has been reported that both bivalent and quadrivalent HPV vaccines exert a cross-protection effect against HPV 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 52, 58, and 59. 5 , 9–12 Thus, in our study, we examined the prevalence of other types of HPV as well.…”

Long‐term effectiveness of HPV vaccination against HPV infection in young Japanese women: Real‐world data

“…We previously reported a significant preventive effect of the HPV vaccine against HPV 16/18 infection in Japanese women aged 20–22 years 6,7 . We also analyzed the preventive effect against abnormal cytology and histology in women aged 20 years and compared pre‐vaccination cohorts (those born between 1991 and 1993) to those born when public funding became available for the HPV vaccine (born between 1994 and 1996).…”

“…5 We previously reported a significant preventive effect of the HPV vaccine against HPV 16/18 infection in Japanese women aged 20-22 years. 6,7 We also analyzed the preventive effect against abnormal cytology and histology in women aged 20 years and compared prevaccination cohorts (those born between 1991 and 1993) to those born when public funding became available for the HPV vaccine (born between 1994 and 1996). We found that the incidence of cytological abnormalities, ASC-US or worse (ASC-US+) decreased by 24%, LSIL or worse (LSIL+) decreased by 73%, and CIN3 decreased significantly from 0.8% to 0% (P = 0.016) in cohorts eligible for publicly funded vaccination.…”

Suspension of proactive recommendations for HPV vaccination has led to a significant increase in HPV infection rates in young Japanese women: real-world data

“…We investigated HPV infection rates in women aged 20-21 years undergoing cervical screening in Niigata City from April 2014 to March 2021 (fiscal years 2014-2020) [6] (supplementary Figure 1). HPV vaccination coverage in the target cohorts increased from 30.8% (2014) to 87.8% (2015), 90.0% (2016) and 92.9% (2017), followed by 89.6% (2018) and 89.2% (2019).…”