Building Trust, Managing Risk: Vaccine Confidence and Human Papillomavirus Vaccination

The Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and the HPV Prevention and Control Board at the University of Antwerp hosted a symposium on vaccine confidence and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination, which is intended to prevent cervical and other types of cancer. (The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends HPV vaccines as part of routine vaccinations in all countries, along with other prevention measures. HPV vaccine is typically recommended for young women through age 26, and young men through age 21.)

Sessions covered topics related to:

• The state of HPV vaccination in the world;
• HPV vaccination: real and perceived safety issues;
• Culture, religion, and morality around HPV vaccination;
• Immunisation anxiety reactions and the HPV vaccine;
• Monitoring of the media and social media listening;
• The role of the media;
• Engaging and communicating with different audiences; and
• Strategies to monitor, build, and maintain confidence.

Materials from the meeting, including slides from and videos of the presentations, are available on the Vaccine Confidence Project website. Relevant literature is posted on a regular basis on the right margin of the dedicated page.