Increasing HPV Education and Vaccination of Preteens in a Medically Underserved Neighborhood

A Middle School-Based Approach

Abstract

The United States of America is failing to achieve widespread human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage despite evidence that shows the vaccine can prevent HPV related disease, including greater than 80 percent of cervical cancers. Internationally, school based vaccination programs have proven to lead to the highest vaccination rates. In an effort to increase rates in one of Arkansas’s most underserved communities, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences 12th Street Health and Wellness Center formed a partnership with the Little Rock School District to provide the Gardasil 9 vaccination series to 11-12-year-old students free of charge in their middle school. Student-run free health clinics can help increase local HPV vaccination rates by utilizing existing government resources to provide free vaccines to medically underserved children. Our goal in publishing this report is to provide the steps necessary to design and implement similar school-based vaccination programs to replicate this partnership across the nation.