There has been a notable change in cervical cancer discourse, from prevention to eradication. FASTER, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and HPV screening are new intervention techniques that can be used to start the route to eradication. Between March 2017 and August 2018, an assessment was conducted at eight primary healthcare clinics within Mexico City’s Tlalpan Health Jurisdiction to investigate the viability of the FASTER method. Three components were evaluated using a mixed-methods approach: infrastructure, patient acceptance, and healthcare professionals’ views. This includes required checklists for the FASTER infrastructure implementation as well as interviews with women and healthcare experts. As part of a combined vaccination and screening program, nearly all of the 3,474 women aged 25–45 years received the HPV vaccine. The major reason for acceptance was prevention, whereas the main reason for refusal was uncertainty regarding the vaccine’s advantages. The majority of the 24 healthcare professionals surveyed supported HPV vaccination and recognized the need to enhance distribution, clearly and succinctly inform the community, and currently broaden the age range for vaccination.
The study of eight primary healthcare centers revealed that they possessed the infrastructure needed to establish a unified HPV prevention plan, but that many centers needed to improve to become more efficient. These data show that, while HPV vaccination acceptability was high, more education and awareness among potential vaccine recipients and healthcare providers is needed in order to implement the FASTER plan.
Reference: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2019.1619401
