Study: Doctors Aren't Urging Preteens To Get HPV Vaccine

Published January 5, 2016 at 1:20 PM EST

University of Miami pediatrician Judith L. Schaechter, M.D. (L) gives an HPV vaccination to a 13-year-old girl in her office at the Miller School of Medicine on September 21, 2011 in Miami, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A new study finds that many doctors are not urging their preteen patients to get the vaccine for HPV (human papillomavirus).

HPV can cause cervical and throat cancers and it’s the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States. The vaccine can prevent the transmission and therefore prevent cancers, but the study showed many of these doctors thought that patients’ parents would object to the vaccination.

Here & Now’s Robin Young speaks with the lead researcher, Dr. Allison Kempe of the University of Colorado.

Guest

Allison Kempe, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado.

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