Next Monday, Venetia Qendri will travel to South Africa for the 31st International Papillomavirus Conference in Cape Town, which will take place from February 28 until March 4. The conference will focus on the most recent developments in the field of papillomavirus research and will cover aspects of research from basic science, such as molecular biology and pathogenesis of papillomavirus, to global health impact, such as prevention of cervical cancer and other HPV-related diseases around the globe.
During this conference, Venetia will present a poster based on the recently submitted study ‘Health and economic impact of a tender-based gender-neutral HPV16/18 vaccination programme in the Netherlands’.
Main conclusion of the study
This study finds that including boys along with girls in the Dutch national immunization programme is highly likely to be cost-effective under current vaccine costs and vaccine uptake among girls in the Netherlands. Preadolescent boys’ vaccination is only modestly less efficient than increasing uptake among girls, as vaccinating 40% boys along with 60% girls, the current vaccine uptake among girls in the national immunization programme, yielded the same health gain as increasing the uptake in girls from 60 to 80%.