A randomized controlled trial of 2,275 women in Kenya showed that a single dose of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine was highly effective. The current standard for women is a three-dose regimen.
Dr. Ruanne Barnabas, principal investigator in the trial, said the trial results could help the World Health Organization reach its goal to have 90% of 15-year-old girls vaccinated against HPV by 2030. “The single-dose efficacy was the same as multiple doses,” she said.
Currently, just 15% of women worldwide are vaccinated against HPV.
Barnabas was a professor of global health at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle at the time of the study. She is now chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
The results of the “KEN-SHE” trial appear today in the journal NEJM Evidence. (They were published in preprint in November 2021.)
“These findings are a game-changer that may substantially reduce the incidence of HPV-attributable cervical cancer and positions single-dose HPV vaccination as a high-value and high-impact public health intervention that is within reach for us,” said Professor Sam Kariuki, acting director general at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, where the study was conducted.
The findings add further support to the adoption of a single-dose HPV vaccine, which could increase accessibility in low- and middle-income countries, said Peter Dull, deputy director of vaccine development and surveillance at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which funded the study.
