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St. Louis,
Washington
Mercy Clinic received the 2018 HPV Vaccine Is Cancer Prevention Champion Award for outstanding efforts to protect adolescents from cancers caused by HPV in Missouri, selected for its efforts to achieve high HPV vaccination rates in its practices.
Led in partnership by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Association of American Cancer Institutes, and the American Cancer Society the HPV Vaccine Is Cancer Prevention Champion Award Program recognizes clinicians, clinics, practices, groups and health systems that are going above and beyond to foster HPV vaccination in their community. This year, the award program is honoring champions from 31 states.
Getting the HPV vaccine can help protect our children from six cancers caused by human papillomavirus,” said Dr. Howard Schlansky, department chair of Pediatrics with Mercy Clinic’s East region. “We highly encourage and recommend parents do this for the health of their children as they grow into adults.”
HPV vaccine is important because it protects against cancers caused by human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. HPV is a very common virus; nearly 80 million people are currently infected in the United States. Every year in the United States, 33,700 women and men are diagnosed with a cancer caused by HPV infection. HPV vaccination could prevent more than 90% of these cancers – about 31,000 – from occurring. Both boys and girls should start the HPV vaccine series when they are 11 or 12 years old and finish all recommended doses before they turn age 13. The HPV vaccine series can be started as early as age 9.
Every year, the award honors up to one champion from all 50 U.S. states, eight U.S. Territories and Freely Associated States, and the District of Columbia. Immunization programs submit nominations for the HPV Vaccine is Cancer Prevention Champion in their state or territory. Nominees must be a clinician, clinic, practice, group or health system that treats adolescents as part of their overall patient population and must have an HPV vaccine series completion rate at 60% or higher for their adolescent patient population.
To read Mercy Clinic’s profile on the CDC’s website, and to learn more about HPV Vaccine Is Cancer Prevention Champion Award program, please visit https://www.cdc.gov/hpv.
