The combination of HPV vaccination and cervical screening can provide the greatest protection against cervical cancer. Also, vaccination is the approved public health intervention for reducing the risk of developing HPV-associated cancers at sites other than the cervix.

It is important that as many people as possible in the recommended age group get vaccinated. Not only does vaccination protect vaccinated individuals against infection by the HPV types targeted by the respective vaccine, but also vaccination of a significant proportion of the population can reduce the prevalence of the vaccine-targeted HPV types in the population, thereby providing some protection for individuals who are not vaccinated (a phenomenon called herd immunity). For example, in Australia, where a high proportion of girls are vaccinated with Gardasil, the incidence of genital warts went down during the first 4 years of the vaccination program among young males—who were not being vaccinated at the time—as well as among young females (16).

Further evidence that large-scale HPV vaccination confers protection for unvaccinated individuals comes from a 2019 meta-analysis of girls-only HPV vaccination programs in 14 high-income countries that included 60 million vaccinated people (9). That analysis showed that, up to 8 years after the start of vaccination, diagnoses of anogenital warts decreased by 31% among women aged 25–29 years, by 48% among boys aged 15–19 years, and by 32% among men aged 20–24 years, compared with the period before vaccination began.

Widespread HPV vaccination has the potential to reduce cervical cancer incidence around the world by as much as 90% (8, 12). In addition, the vaccines may reduce the need for screening and subsequent medical care, biopsies, and invasive procedures associated with follow-up from abnormal cervical screening, thus helping to reduce health care costs and anxieties related to follow-up procedures (17).

Until recently, the other cancers caused by HPV were less common than cervical cancer. However, the incidence of HPV-positive oropharyngeal cancer and anal cancer has been increasing in the United States (18) while the incidence of cervical cancer has declined, due mainly to highly effective cervical cancer screening programs. Therefore, in the United States, non-cervical cancers caused by HPV are now as common as cervical cancers. In addition, most of the HPV-positive non-cervical cancers arise in men. There are no formal screening programs for the non-cervical cancers, so universal vaccination could have an important public health benefit.