Challenge to improve Japan's deplorable HPV vaccination rate by local government actions

In Japan, in 2013, following reports of several alleged adverse reactions in young girls following vaccination, the previously successful national human papillomavirus infection (HPV) vaccination program collapsed rapidly. In the 8 years since vaccination rates have hovered near zero. In October of 2020, in an attempt to mitigate this lingering disaster, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) agency finally revised its HPV vaccination informational leaflet that was designed to be distributed by local governments nationwide. Prior to this revision, Toyonaka City, in Japan's Osaka province, had already begun sending out their own unique leaflet to girls in the targeted 6th-10th grades. As a preview of how MHLW's revised leaflet might eventually succeed, we have studied the HPV vaccination results from Toyonaka City's experiment.

This study was a population-based analysis that compared the monthly rates of new vaccinations in girls of a targeted grade school age group. We looked at rates before and after the leaflets were sent by Toyonaka City's Division of Health Promotion and Senior Services.

The vaccination rates between April 2020 and March 2021 were improved across all grades; 1.2% in 6th grade (p = 0.000185), 2.5% in 7th grade (p < 0.0001), 3.5% in 8th grade (p < 0.0001), 6.8% in 9th grade (p < 0.0001), and a remarkable 16.5% in 10th grade (p < 0.0001).

When a local government sends an HPV informational leaflet targeted at young girls, it can significantly improve their HPV vaccination rates.