This year, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine will be applied to 20,000 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 16, as part of the research carried out by the Costa Rican Agency for Biomedical Research (ACIB), coordinated by Dr. Paula González.
According to the expert, the young women will be invited to get the two-dose vaccination.
We are planning to do the study in the second half of the year. The invitation will be for women from Guanacaste and other previously selected cantons. The second dose will be applied six months after the first one,”
said González.
Following the vaccination, the young women will be monitored for four years in order to demonstrate that a single dose of the vaccine provides the same protection as two doses.
Obviously, as they are minors, the parents are invited to give their consent to participate.
González said that vaccines used for the study have been used for many years in the market and studies conducted in more than 20 countries did not find the vaccine to cause any adversity.
HPV is a small DNA structure that infects the body’s cells, especially the mucous membranes. It is an intracellular virus that feeds on the DNA of the host cell. It is spread only through sexual intercourse.
According to experts, 80% of the sexually active population has the virus and 80% do not know that they have it. 80% of women have the virus, but only 70% of them become ill and only 1% of men become infected.
In women, one of the manifestations of the disease is cervical cancer, which occurs in premalignant phases, including dysplasias and neoplasms. Worldwide, around 500,000 new cases are detected per year, 220 of those are in Costa Rica.