Parents refusing the 'unsafe' HPV vaccine for their daughters
Parents are holding back, and are not allowing their daughters to have the controversial HPV vaccine, new research has discovered.
The main worry is the safety of the vaccine, and parents are still reluctant to have their daughter vaccinated even when other barriers, such as cost, are removed.
Researchers who surveyed 2.025 parents of 11-year-old girls at a school in British Columbia, Canada discovered that the take-up rate was just 65 per cent, 20 per cent lower than for other vaccines, such as hepatitis B and meningitis.
Researchers say that safety issues need to be addressed if take-up of the HPV vaccine is to reach reasonable levels.
(Source: PLoS Medicine, 2010; 7: e10000270. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000270).