The immunogenicity of the nonavalent HPV vaccine in young females

Abstract

HPV is a sexually transmitted infection consisting of over 150 types. There is no known cure for the infection, however vaccines have been manufactured which prevent certain types of the infection. The objective of this project was to determine whether vaccination using the nonavalent HPV vaccine provided immunogenicity to young females. The research question was thus formulated as follows: Does the nonvalent HPV vaccine provide immunogenicity to young females? The PEO elements used to formulate this question were Population – young females; Exposure/Intervention – nonavalent HPV vaccine; Outcome – immunogenicity. A thorough and exhaustive search was conducted using three online databases, with further manual research being carried out. Results were limited to include publications from 2010 onwards and those available in the English language. The resulting articles were then analyzed, first by reading the abstract, and removing any duplicates. This led to the selection of six key studies to be used for analysis. Critical appraisal of these key studies was completed following the CASP and JBI tools. The overall results indicate that the nonavalent HPV vaccine provides significant immunogenicity to young females. To increase the strength of these findings, further research must be carried out especially locally. Main recommendations include taking measures to increase the awareness of health care professionals, as well as the general public, regarding vaccination, as well as providing the Maltese health authorities with valid arguments in favour of upgrading from the bivalent HPV vaccine, currently being given to 12-year-old females, to the nonavalent HPV vaccine.