Decline in prevalence of human papillomavirus infection following vaccination among Australian Indigenous women, a population at higher risk of cervical cancer: The VIP-I study

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer occurrence and mortality are strongly correlated with socioeconomic disadvantage, largely due to unequal access to screening and treatment. Universal human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination provides the opportunity to greatly reduce this global health disparity. Australian Indigenous women have substantially higher rates of cervical cancer than non-Indigenous women, primarily due to under-screening. We investigated HPV infection rates in Indigenous women 7 years after implementation of the national HPV vaccination program. Methods: We used a repeat cross-sectional design, with the baseline being provided by an HPV prevalence survey among Indigenous women attending ..