Got the HPV vaccine? You may need another shot to protect yourself from a different strain

Got the HPV vaccine? You may need another shot to protect yourself from a different strain

The Gardasil vaccine may not be enough to protect against HPV.

Remember that Gardasil vaccine you received to prevent you from contracting the human papillomavirus, or HPV? Well you may need a new shot to protect you from a different strain of the virus. Not only does the original HPV vaccine not protect you from there other strains, but it actually makes you more likely to contract them.

CBS News reports that while a study conducted showed the women who received the Gardasil shot were 90 percent less likely to contract the four strains that it protects against, it also showed that the same women were 60 percent more likely to contract one of the other strains. Fangjian Guo, a postdoctoral associate at the University of Texas Medical Branch and researcher on the study told Live Science that “Vaccinated women who got the quadrivalent vaccine may get the none-valent vaccine as further protection for them.”

Researchers analyzed data from 600 women between the ages of 20 and 26 years old. The study included 80 women who had received the Gardasil vaccine. Their chances of contracting a different strain of HPV were significantly higher than those of the women who hadn’t received any vaccine at all. The researchers also took into consideration other factors of the participants including how many sexual partners they had.

HPV leads to cervical cancer, but Guo says that more research is needed to determine a woman’s chances of developing cervical cancer if she has already received the Gardasil vaccine but contracts a high-risk strain of HPV. It is suggested that all boys and girls get vaccinated around the age of 11 or 12 years old. Vaccines are available for men until the age of 21 and for women until the age of 26.

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