Today at Brown
Brown University
By Anne Coyle | May 5, 2010
The human papilloma virus is the most common sexually transmitted disease in the United States. A new Brown study may help immunize an especially vulnerable population: incarcerated adolescent girls.
Six million Americans are expected to become infected with the human papilloma virus (HPV) annually, and an estimated 50 percent of sexually active people will have HPV at some point in their lives.
Given these rates of infection and the availability of several FDA-approved vaccines for girls and women, a research team from Miriam Hospital and Brown University – Courtney E. Henderson, administrative director for the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences; Josiah D. Rich, professor of medicine and community health; and Michelle A. Lally, director of the HIV Vaccine Clinical Trials Unit for Brown University/The Miriam Hospital – decided to study the vaccination rates of girls and young women in the juvenile justice system. Their study, which appears in the May issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, is the first nationwide review of HPV vaccinations among this population.