HAS recommends catch-up vaccination against human papillomavirus for everyone up to the age of 26

On Tuesday, May 13, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) recommended catch-up vaccination against the human papillomavirus (HPV) for men and women up to the age of 26, while reiterating that the priority remains the vaccination of adolescents aged 11 to 14.

"Until now, the HPV catch-up vaccination was covered for heterosexual women and men up to the age of 19, and up to the age of 26 for men who have sex with men, creating unequal access to vaccination based on gender and sexual orientation," the HAS recalls in its press release. The independent public body recommends "extending the catch-up vaccination against HPV viruses with the Gardasil 9 vaccine to young men and women, regardless of their sexual orientation, who were not vaccinated in adolescence between the ages of 11 and 14, up to the age of 26."

HPV infection is responsible for nearly 6,400 new cases of cancer each year, mainly cervical cancer, and 35,000 precancerous lesions, the HAS emphasizes. The anti-HPV catch-up strategy constitutes, according to it, "an additional lever for prevention, helping to reduce the circulation of HPV viruses in the general population" while vaccination coverage of adolescents aged 11 to 14 "remains insufficient" .

To make its decision, the HAS relied in particular on data showing that "three-quarters of young adults" up to the age of 26 "have not yet been exposed to HPV infections, but are at high risk of acquiring and transmitting them." The peak incidence for women in France is in the 20 to 24 age group, the authority explains.

Gardasil 9, manufactured by the American laboratory MSD, can be administered at the time of the dTcaP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio) vaccine booster at age 25 and the catch-up vaccination against invasive meningococcal infections (ACWY vaccines), now recommended between ages 15 and 24, explains the HAS. However, it insists that "the protection conferred by the vaccine is optimal when it is administered as early as possible and that vaccination should therefore not be delayed until adulthood."

In 2024, the French Academy of Medicine , other learned societies, medical associations and health professional unions recommended HPV vaccination for everyone up to the age of 26 in order to accelerate the elimination of cancers linked to papillomaviruses.