By Kate Bradshaw published in the Tampa Tribune on Sept. 5, 2014

Citing statistics they called alarming, health officials urged Pinellas County parents to vaccinate their children against the sometimes deadly human papilloma virus, or HPV. 

The virus’s high transmission rate and potentially cancerous effects are preventable, they said, but only among those who get the vaccine, which is available through the Florida Department of Health and at a handful of schools in the county.

“It’s a very, very common virus,” said Claude Dharamraj, director of the state health department’s Pinellas branch. “The bad thing about it is, you don’t get sick with it, and if you don’t get sick with it you don’t know you have it.” 

She said it’s contracted very easily, not only through sexual contact, but by oral contact as well, but the virus strains that cause cancer typically have no symptoms. Years after it’s contracted, the virus can cause cervical, throat and other types of cancer. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends parents get their children, boys and girls, vaccinated by age 11 or 12.

In Florida, vaccination against HPV so far has been a hard sell. The state has the lowest vaccination rate in the country. 

Florida’s cervical cancer rate is 8.2 per 100,000 women, according to the CDC. Hillsborough County’s rate is 9.5, while Pinellas’ is 7.4. The U.S. average is 7.5.

In Pinellas, meanwhile, African American women have a significantly higher-than-average rate of cervical cancer, 11.4. 

That number, taken with the low vaccination rate, paints a grim picture, said U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, whose district include parts of Pinellas and Hillsborough.

“It is higher than the state average, it’s higher than the national average,” she said. “If you could prevent your children from getting cancer, would you? Of course you would, and you can.” 

Dharamraj said there has been resistance among some parents, namely among those skeptical of the vaccine’s potential side effects, as has been the issue with measles, flu, and whooping cough inoculations. She added some are also concerned that administering it to prevent a virus often transmitted through sex acts might encourage sexual activity among youths.

“It’s prevention,” Dharamraj said. “You don’t have to be sexually active, you can get it through just oral contact, so I think it’s very important.” 

The vaccine is available to everyone, and is free for those who can’t afford it. Parents may visit health department offices throughout the county, except the Largo office, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on a walk-in basis. Some high schools, including Northeast, Boca Ciega and Pinellas Park, offer it to their students. It is administered in three shots over six months, and is said to immunize those who receive it against HPV for life.