Since the announcement of the papillomavirus vaccination campaign in February 2023 by Emmanuel Macron, a lot of false information has been circulating on social networks. These assertions concern the alleged dangerousness of the vaccine, or even its real effectiveness. Recently, with the approach of the launch of the campaign, which will begin in October to offer free vaccination to 5th grade volunteers, this type of publication has found significant resonance online.
A specific example is often put forward by detractors of vaccination, who base themselves on the example of Australia. The country launched its HPV vaccination campaign in 2007 for girls, and in 2013 for boys.
We see two graphs, showing the evolution of the incidence (number of cases at a given period) of cervical cancers in the country by year. These graphs are accompanied by the legends: “Since vaccinations the incidence of invasive cancer has not decreased”, as well as “vaccination does not reduce the number of cancers”.
These two visuals are shared in publications which state in particular that “the Gardasil vaccine [nom d’un des vaccins contre le papillomavirus] does not reduce the incidence of cervical cancer and rather increases it in vaccinated groups.”
By following the reading of the graphs supported by these publications, this is what we are led to understand, the curves stagnating or even increasing slightly after the year 2007.
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In reality, it is too early to be able to assess the number of cancers in young girls whose vaccination began in 2007. Indeed, as explained by the National Cancer Institute (INCa), contacted by 20 minutes, “the median age of onset of cervical cancer is 53 years”. These graphs therefore in no way allow us to conclude that the vaccine is ineffective, and their reading as induced by the publications is biased.
As the National Cancer Institute (INCa) recalls, these infections follow three stages: “infection (a few days or weeks), then condyloma or/and precancerous lesions (between 5 and 10 years), and finally cancerization in 25-30 years “.
The fact that the curves in the graphs do not go back directly after the year of the start of the vaccination campaign is therefore entirely logical. The data used in the charts is otherwise genuine and available online. They come from the National Cancer Control Indicators, which brings together official cancer data in Australia.
Effectiveness that is clearly observable
Concerning the increase in cancers of the cervix from the mid-2000s observable in several countries, the INCa specifies that the latter affected the age groups above 20-29 years. And that consequently “the people affected were not vaccinated” and that “those who were vaccinated were not, and by far, reached the age of cancer”.
As for Australia, it was therefore only from 2019-2020 that the first groups of women vaccinated at 12-13 years old entered the cancer screening program.
The effectiveness of the vaccine is also already observable with regard to the prevention of cancerous lesions and infections, in “Australia, Sweden, Scotland, United States, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, Denmark, and Canada”, informs the INCa. The organization adds: “We have observed a reduction in the incidence of precancerous lesions of the cervix of around 90%”.
“What is being eradicated there – even beyond all expectations, is the circulation of the virus and precancerous lesions”, supports the National Cancer Institute.
A risk that also concerns men
Contrary to what other online publications also claim, the link between the papillomavirus and cancers of the cervix is also well and truly proven. Still according toINCa, each year there are 6,400 new cases of cancer caused by papillomaviruses. Among them, 2900 are cervical cancers.
But if vaccination is also offered to boys from next October, they are also concerned by the risk of cancer following infection with papillomavirus. More than a quarter of the cancers detected each year indeed concern men, with cancers of the oropharynx (part of the throat), the penis, or even the anus.