Recommendations on Vaccination

• As part of an overall EU ambition for eliminating HPV cancers and diseases, Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan should encourage all EU member states to implement gender-neutral vaccination programmes. Progress towards this goal should be monitored via a European Cancer Dashboard.
  
  
• By 2025, all European country cancer plans should include actions towards achieving population-based and gender-neutral HPV vaccination, if not already in place.
  
  
• By 2030, gender-neutral vaccination programmes against HPV infection should be in place in all European countries.
• The target vaccination rate by 2030 in all European countries should be at least 90% of adolescents of both genders completing the full course with particular attention paid to ensuring equitable access for all demographic groups.
  
  
• Supplementary to gender-neutral vaccination programmes, consideration should be given to the needs of high-risk groups, including men who have sex with men, migrants and sex workers, that may otherwise fall outside of the age parameters of the universal vaccination programme.
  
  
• Consideration should be given to extending routine vaccination programmes to older age groups on a gender-neutral basis.
  
  
• Best practice guidance should be developed and published by the WHO and/or EU on how HPV vaccination programmes can be delivered to ensure optimal uptake.
  
  
• In support of vaccination goals, global cooperation should be fostered, through WHO or other organisations, to resolve vaccine supply issues to ensure no country’s HPV vaccination programmes are impacted because of shortages. The EU should work with vaccine manufacturers to ensure that the supply of vaccines is sufficient in future to meet the growth in demand. Current global supply issues need not impact adversely on the timescales proposed in these recommendations.
  
  
• Action must be taken to ensure minimum disruption to HPV vaccination programmes by COVID-19.