Third of people have 'no awareness' vaccines may prevent certain cancers
Irish Cancer Society chief executive Averil Power said about 400 people in Ireland are diagnosed with HPV-related cancers annually.
More than one in three people are unaware there are vaccines to help prevent certain types of cancer, a survey on vaccine awareness in Ireland has found.
The survey also found only three in 10 people understand HPV, a virus which is the leading cause of cervical cancer and for which there is a vaccine.
Some 47% were unaware it could cause genital warts and only 4% know HPV is “extremely common”.
The Ipsos B&A survey found 34% of people have “no awareness” vaccines may help prevent certain types of cancers, which it said is “a 3% decline in awareness when compared with the previous year”.
Awareness of the HPV vaccine is also declining, with a 3% fall in awareness identified compared with 2022, 2221 and 2018.
Irish Cancer Society chief executive Averil Power said about 400 people in Ireland are diagnosed with HPV-related cancers annually.
The Irish strategy on cervical cancer is aiming for elimination by 2040, meaning it will be a rare disease.
“We should also be aiming to significantly reduce all HPV-related cancers in both women and men,” she said.
“To do this we need to increase the levels of public awareness of HPV — what it is, how common it is, how it can be transmitted — and on the uptake of the HPV vaccination.”
She encouraged people to consider getting vaccinated, saying it is “effective and saves lives”.
The survey was carried out by Ipsos B&A on behalf of biopharmaceutical company MSD Ireland, polling more than 1,400 people to examine awareness and perceptions of HPV.
Results also show 76% said they thought “it is unlikely” they have ever had HPV. In addition, 26% said they did not know how HPV was spread, also a 3% increase on the year before.
Assistant director of nursing services at the Marie Keating Foundation Bernie Carter said in reality HPV was very common.
“HPV is so common that most sexually active men and women will have the virus at some point in their lives, which means that many of us will have it without even knowing we’ve had it,” she said.
The research was carried out ahead of a HPV Aware campaign launched by MSD Ireland and supported by the Irish Cancer Society, Marie Keating Foundation and health services research consortium Cerviva.
It also found while 62% were aware HPV could cause cancer, 36% were not aware HPV could cause cancers in men also.
Cerviva spokesperson Dr Cara Martin, assistant professor in molecular pathology at Trinity College Dublin, said there was no screening test for HPV-related cancers in men currently.
“The best chance we have of eliminating these cancers is to prevent the primary infection through vaccination,” she said.
