Introducing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in the developing world: bridging reproductive health and the global response to HIV

Date: Thursday 1 November 13.30–15.00
Source: Forum 11
Authors: Robert Hecht, Senior Vice-President, Public Policy, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, USA
with Julie Becker and Gabrielle Lamourelle

Abstract

The commercial debut of two highly promising vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV) presents the HIV vaccine community with a unique opportunity to contribute to the rapid introduction and uptake of HPV vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, and to transmit the valuable knowledge gained to the HIV vaccine field. HPV pilot projects currently underway to develop and evaluate HPV vaccine delivery strategies for adolescent girls and associated policy efforts, will be instrumental in developing tools to aid decision-making and planning processes for HPV vaccine introduction. These introduction efforts can serve as a platform to accelerate future HIV vaccine introduction and access in both industrialized and developing countries.

The presentation will discuss the range of factors and issues common to HPV and HIV vaccines, and areas in which the reproductive health and HIV fields may gain most by working collaboratively. These include, for example: the social and logistical challenges of prioritizing pre-adolescents or adolescents for immunization; developing approaches to communicating complex concepts such as partial efficacy; approaches to garnering community and political support; addressing concerns about sexuality and stigma in a vaccination programme; and the importance of women, as users of vaccines and facilitators of access. The presentation will also describe a new project of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to ensure a continual exchange of learning between the HPV operational research/pilot introduction efforts and the HIV vaccine field, and will discuss the areas in which the HPV vaccine field can take advantage of HIV vaccine experience in policy research and analysis, global advocacy and vaccine preparedness.

Operational research and pilot interventions to test approaches to HPV vaccine introduction will produce important lessons about facilitators of and barriers to access, which will be applied to the scale-up of HPV vaccination programmes. These lessons will also inform delivery and introduction strategies for other interventions facing similar social, economic, political and/or logistical challenges. As such, evaluating effective delivery strategies for HPV vaccines offers the international health community a special opportunity to support equitable access to recently developed tools, as well as prevention technologies still in development, such as HIV vaccines and microbicides.