January is Cervical Awareness Month

We have an amazing tool to protect young people from most of the cancers caused by HPV, including cervical cancer. Let’s use the rest of January to raise awareness of all HPV cancers and HPV vaccination.

CDC and several partner organizations have compiled a multitude of resources for the new
HPV Vaccination Partner Toolkit that can help you share the importance of HPV vaccination, help clinicians make effective recommendations, improve coverage rates, and provide you with places you can go to get more information and materials. Below are ways you can raise awareness this month and in the future.

Share Why HPV Vaccine is Important

     1. Have Survivors Come to Speak
     Having a survivor come speak to clinicians in the area can
     make a big impact. The American Cancer Society has
     developed a speaker database that will allow you to find
     HPV cancer survivors in your area.

     2. Share Survivor Videos
     HPV cancer survivors have a unique and powerful story to tell.
     Listen to these men and women talk about their experiences
     important. These videos can be used to help parents and
     clinicians understand the risks of HPV infection and why HPV
     vaccination is so important.

     3. Set up a viewing of Someone You Love
     “Someone You Love: The HPV Epidemic” is a feature length
     in-depth documentary narrated by Vanessa Williams on the
     human papilloma virus (HPV) and the stories of
     struggle, tragedy and triumph surrounding this complicated
     and often misunderstood infection.

     4. Discover the Link Between HPV and Cancer
     Each year, about 38,793 new cases of cancer are found in
     parts of the body where human papillomavirus (HPV) is often
     found. HPV causes about 30,700 of these cancers. Get the
     statistics around HPV and Cancer from CDC to better
     understand the burden of HPV infection.

Help Clinicians Make Effective Recommendations

     1. Share the Updated Clinician Factsheet
     Our updated clinician tipsheet highlights the use of the
     "bundled recommendation" and gives simple and effective
     answers to the questions parents have about HPV vaccine.

     2. Learn How to Give an Effective Recommendation     CDC has created multiple CME courses on the best ways to
     give an HPV vaccine recommendation. Each course can be
     used to get new insight on how to have the HPV vaccine
     conversation with parents of 11-12 year olds and how to
     answer their questions.

     3. Watch Providers Giving Effective Recommendations     Minnesota Department of Health has created a 12-minute
     video for health care providers on HPV vaccine
    communication. The video begins with humorous vignettes
    and then presents four model clinical encounters in which
    providers demonstrate low-stress ways of recommending
    HPV vaccine and answering questions from patients and
    parents.

Help Raise HPV Vaccination Rates

     1. Know the Many Ways You Can Help     Get tips on what different types of groups can do to help
     raise rates. This PDF includes suggestions like: sending
     letters to parents of 9-12 year olds, hosting lunch and learns,
     working with local cancer groups, reaching out to local
     health systems, and more.

     2. Understand your Rates     Access survey data collected by CDC and translate the data
     into action. This data can help you identify where additional
     efforts are needed to increase vaccination coverage.

     3. Get Involved in Quality Improvement Projects     Quality improvement actions in your practice can lead to
     increases in HPV vaccination coverage. Find out more about
     the different types of quality improvement projects that are
     available, including AFIX visits, reminder/recall, immunization
     information systems, and more.

     4. Participate in A Maintenance of Certification Project     Be a part of AAP's maintenance of certification program.
     AAP's MOC site is designed to assist eligible AAP Member
     pediatricians in developing, submitting, and managing a
     MOC related activity.

Get More Resources

     1. CDC's HPV Partner Toolkit     This toolkit provides resources for state and local
     organizations interested in enhancing HPV vaccination
     efforts at the clinician, patient, and partnership level.
     It includes all of CDC's resources for helping to promote
     HPV vaccine and give links to partner information.

     2. The American Cancer Soceity     The American Cancer Society has several HPV vaccination
     rate improvement initiatives. The HPV VACs project
     partners with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs),
     state health departments, and other state-based entities to
     increase HPV vaccination rates through improved clinician
     education and systems change. The National HPV
     Vaccination Roundtable, coordinated by the American
     Cancer Society is a national coalition of over 70 national
     organizations working together to prevent HPV cancer and
     precancer by increasing and sustaining HPV vaccination
     rates in the United States..

     3. The AAP's HPV Champion Toolkit.
     This toolkit from the American Academy of Pediatrics has
     some of the best resources available to help you educate
     other healthcare professionals, discuss HPV vaccination
     with parents, and make necessary changes in your practice
     to improve HPV vaccination rates.

     4. Local Partners
     Many organizations have local initiatives to increase HPV
     vaccination rates. Use this page to find your state contacts,
     as well as information on several partner projects dedicated
     to preventing HPV cancers and diseases.

Show My Organization’s Support

     If your organization is committed to increasing HPV
     vaccination rates as a means to reducing HPV cancers,
     then this symbol is for you! The “We’re In!” symbol was
     created in collaboration with National HPV Vaccination
     Roundtable members and is meant to be an easy way for
     organizations to publicly show support for HPV cancer
     prevention. Visit: https://www.bit.ly/WereIn to sign the
     “Download for Use” Agreement form. When you sign up,
     your organization will have access to English and Spanish
     versions of the “We’re In!” symbol in a variety of formats
     along with a “Quick Action Guide” to get you started. This
     symbol is a tool for you to use as a way to promote your
     organization’s efforts to raise HPV vaccination rates and
     reduce HPV cancer. For example, you can post the symbol
     to your organization’s website or social media accounts as
     a first step in showing your support. Encourage your
     organizational partners and stakeholders to sign up as well.
     Are you in to prevent HPV cancer?