CDC ACIP Workgroup Reviewing FDA-Approved HPV Vaccines

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) published its Terms of Reference for its Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine Workgroup. This workgroup plans to review the current HPV vaccination schedule looking at the current dosage and age of administration, as well as the vaccine’s safety and efficacy data.¹

Currently, the HPV vaccine is administered as 2 doses and ACIP is looking to possibly change that to 1 dose. In terms of the age for routine HPV vaccination, this could mean children will receive the vaccine at an older age than they are now.

Traditionally, the recommendation has been to administer the vaccine at ages 11 or 12 years, before contact with the HPV virus. However, the CDC says the vaccine can be also be administered to teens and young adults through the age 26. And some adults ages 27 through 45 may elect to get the vaccine although there is less benefit as exposure to HPV has likely happened.²

The vaccine series is 2 shots for children before the age of 15, and administered 6 to 12 months apart. The HPV vaccines can be given starting at age 9. For those who begin their HPV vaccine series on or after the age of 15, they will need 3 doses, given over 6 months.²

Although, this year marks 20 years since the FDA approval of the first HPV vaccine, this current ACIP has made it a point to review all vaccines. This happened most recently with the hepatitis B vaccine. ACIP created a workgroup that did not show any new safety data to make changes to the universal birth dose and yet, still voted to make changes last month to its schedule during its December meeting.

The ACIP voting language was the following:
"For infants born to HBsAg [hepatitis B surface antigen]-negative women: ACIP recommends individual-based decision making, in consultation with a health care provider, for parents deciding when or if to give the HBV vaccine, including the birth dose. Parents and health care providers should consider vaccine benefits, vaccine risks, and infection risks. For those not receiving the HBV birth dose, it is suggested that the initial dose is administered no earlier than 2 months of age."

ACIP voted to recommend the aforementioned language. It is important to note that the decision to immunize children against hepatitis B has always come with parental consent, so that has not changed. However, the committee decided to change the birth dose recommendation to 2 months of age.

HPV Vaccine: One Less Dose?

Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), released a news statement around a study that demonstrated a single dose of the HPV vaccine provided protection comparable to 2 doses.³ The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

This was an NIH-funded clinical trial, led by Aimée Kreimer, PhD, at NIH’s National Cancer Institute and Dr. Carolina Porras at the Agencia Costarricense de Investigaciones Biomédicas. The trial compared 1 HPV vaccine dose to 2 doses and included more than 20,000 girls ages 12 to 16 in Costa Rica. The girls were enrolled between November 2017 and February 2020.³

Participants were randomly assigned to receive 1 dose of either of 2 HPV vaccines. A “bivalent” vaccine targeted two HPV types, HPV16 and HPV18, that account for more than 77% of cervical cancers worldwide.³

A “nonavalent” vaccine targeted these 2 plus 5 other types that cause cancer and 2 that cause genital warts. Six months after the first dose, half of the participants received a second dose of the same vaccine. The other half instead received a vaccine against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis as a control. Girls 15 and older were then tested for new HPV infections every 6 months for five years.³

For both vaccines, 1 dose provided protection against persistent cervical HPV infections. This protection was statistically no worse than that provided by 2 doses. Persistent infections were defined as those that lasted for at least 6 months, or two consecutive follow-up visits. By comparing the rates of infection in the survey and the trial groups, the research team estimated how effective each vaccine-dose combination was. In all cases, the vaccines were at least 97% effective in preventing persistent HPV16 and 18 infections.³

“The findings suggest that a single dose of either HPV vaccine will provide adequate protection against HPV infection and subsequent cervical cancers as effectively as two doses,” Kreimer said in the news statement.³

Learn more: HPV Vaccination: A Prevention Measure Against Numerous Cancers

Vaccine Data

“The HPV vaccine has the potential to prevent more than 90% of cancers caused by the virus,” according to the CDC.⁴ The federal agency has listed significant beneficial data around the vaccine including:

1. “Among teen girls, infections with HPV types that cause most HPV cancers and genital warts have dropped 88%.
2. Among young adult women, infections with HPV types that cause most HPV cancers and genital warts have dropped 81%.
3. Among vaccinated women, the percentage of cervical pre-cancers caused by the HPV types most often linked to cervical cancer has dropped by 40%.”⁴

Additionally, in a previous interview with Contagion, Beomjune Kim, DMD, MD, FACS, who is a Head and Neck and Microvascular reconstructive surgeon at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Atlanta said 1 study demonstrated that the vaccine can reduce oral HPV infection by 88%.²

HPV Burden

In the US, HPV causes more than 36,500 people to be diagnosed with cancer annually. Although many people typically associate HPV with cervical cancer, the most common HPV-associated cancer is actually head and neck.⁵

In recent data, there are 2200 women and 11,800 men diagnosed with oropharyngeal (back of the throat) cancers annually in the United States. And HPV is thought to cause 70% of oropharyngeal cancers in the country, according to CDC.²

More than 4 out of every 10 cases of cancer caused by HPV occur among men. Over 14,000 men get cancers caused by HPV in the US annually, so the HPV vaccine is also recommended for boys and young men.²

Next Steps

The CDC’s Terms of Reference did not state when they would provide information on the results from the workgroup, but in the past, the results have been discussed during the ACIP’s meetings.The schedule for this year’s meetings are: February 25-26, June 24-25, and October 21-22.

 

References

1. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine Workgroup Terms of Reference. CDC. Updated December 18, 2025. Accessed January 27, 2026.
2. Parkinson J. HPV Vaccination: A Prevention Measure Against Numerous Cancers. Contagion. June 3, 2022. Accessed January 27, 2026.
https://www.contagionlive.com/view/hpv-vaccination-a-prevention-measure-against-numerous-cancers
3. One dose of HPV vaccine as effective as two. NIH press release. January 13, 2025. Accessed January 27, 2026.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/one-dose-hpv-vaccine-effective-two
4.HPV Vaccination. CDC. August 20, 2024. Accessed January 27, 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/vaccines/index.html
5. Clinical Overview of HPV. CDC. July 9, 2024. Accessed January 27, 2026.
https://www.cdc.gov/hpv/hcp/clinical-overview/index.html