Low vaccination numbers in Dane County are indicating a lack of awareness and education about Human papillomavirus, experts say.

Diane McHugh, coordinator of the Dane County Immunization Coalition, is concerned young people do not realize how important the vaccination is. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus and is attributed as a cause of several types of cancer, according to the Center for Disease Control. Almost every sexually active person will contract HPV in their lifetimes, the website states.

The vaccination could prevent dozens of women’s deaths from cancer if kids are vaccinated at a young age, McHugh said.

Parents do not see their 11 and 12-year-olds at a sexual risk so they do not complete the series of three vaccinations, McHugh said. However, once they become sexually active they are at risk of exposure, she said.

What most people do not know is the antibody response is stronger in younger people, which is why the vaccination is recommended at such a young age, McHugh said.

If a person has the opportunity to prevent cancer, there is no reason they should not, she said.

“If a lot of people just treat it like standard vaccines, [but] it could prevent so much disease,” McHugh said.

Dr. Noelle LoConte, associate professor of medicine at University of Wisconsin, said she thinks one of the reasons people will not get their children vaccinated is because the HPV vaccination is seen as a way to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, rather than cancer.

Another stronger reason is due to a provider or physician not strongly recommending the vaccination to patients, LoConte said.

The amount people research the vaccine is unknown, McHugh said. If a physician recommends a vaccine, a parent will have their child vaccinated.

Most people do not realize there are two forms of the vaccine with different benefits. While the immunization’s main goal is to prevent cancer, the Gardasil vaccine can also protect a person against genital warts, LoConte said.

“The importance of this vaccine is going to be realized when these people are in their 40s, 50s and 60s, which is when they would develop HPV-related cancers,” LoConte said.

Health care providers play an important part through recommending vaccinations to parents of patients, LoConte said.

Providers need to be educated on how low the vaccination rates in Dane County actually are, McHugh said. Getting a patient vaccinated is partially due to how the provider presents the immunization to the parents, she said.

“Many providers do not know that [parents] are not getting their kids fully immunized,” McHugh said. “By helping them understand that they can do better as well and different ways to prevent [HPV] so that they can improve their rates of immunizations in their own practices.”

Researchers play a part as well. The UW Health system is trying to have all the researchers at the UW Carbone Cancer Center studying HPV-related cancers join together to spread the word about their research, LoConte said.