%A Nicole Greer
%T HVP: vaccine education and promotion campaign
%X Vaccinations are one of public health?s greatest achievements from the last 100 years. They provide a tool to help prevent infection and decrease the burden of disease in the population. The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was developed in 2006 and has been shown to reduce the risk of contracting the virus. Some strains of HPV have been linked to the development of cervical, oropharyngeal, and vaginal cancer. Despite the availability of the HPV vaccine, utilization of the vaccine has been relatively low in comparison to vaccination rates of other common vaccines. In order to address the issue of low HPV vaccination rates, public health officials across the United States have chosen different approaches such as mandates and education campaigns. After an unsuccessful attempt at issuing a mandate for the HPV vaccine for middle school children, the Allegheny County Health Department decided that organizations should take an educational approach to increase HPV understanding and vaccine promotion. A review of literature and marketing techniques was conducted to develop an education and vaccine promotion campaign for the HPV vaccine. The campaign aims to target adolescents and their parents to inform them about the HPV vaccine utilizing peer education, provider education, and technology as vectors to disseminate the information. The program will be initiated through a health improvement foundation that is already involved in efforts to increase HPV vaccination. The proposal also lays out an evaluation plan to determine if the campaign efforts are making an impact on the target audience in Allegheny County. The goal of this program is to increase awareness, acceptance, and utilization of the HPV vaccine. A successful HPV education and promotion campaign would be significant to the area of public health because it would help to alleviate some of the burden of disease that HPV causes in terms of cancers, respiratory disease, and sexually transmitted conditions. The campaign influences not only the individuals that receive the vaccine but also act to protect the general public through herd immunity. A successful HPV campaign could be the first step in eliminating the cancer-causing virus from the population.
%D 2017
%I University of Pittsburgh
%L pittir31671