Increasing HPV vaccination rates using social marketing strategies

he human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually-transmitted infection (STI). Approximately 20 million Americans between the ages of 15 and 49 years currently have HPV with > 6.2 million new HPV infections estimated to occur each year. Yet, HPV vaccination rates remain relatively low. More than 40 strains of HPV are transmitted through genital contact during vaginal, anal, or oral sex and can infect males and females. In addition to causing genital warts, HPV is associated with cervical, vulvar, vaginal, anus, penile, and oropharyngeal cancers. In women, the most prominent type of cancer is cervical with > 12,000 diagnoses each year and 4,000 expected to die. In Mississippi, a total of 1,829 HPV-associated cancers were diagnosed between 2004 and 2008, with an average of 33,369 cases in the United States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012a). In 2000, the estimated cost of management of HPV for individuals between the age of 15 and 24 years totaled...