Alvine M Akumbom, Jennifer J Lee, Nancy R Reynolds, Winter Thayer, Jinglu Wang, Eric Slade
Fifteen years following the approval of the first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, cervical cancer continues to be a significant source of morbidity and mortality among women in low-resource settings. It is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women globally and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. Vaccine delivery and programmatic costs may hinder the distribution of HPV vaccines in low-resource settings, and ultimately influence access to HPV vaccines. While reviews have been conducted on the cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccines, little is known about the cost and effectiveness of vaccination strategies. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize evidence on the cost and cost-effectiveness of vaccination strategies utilized to increase access to HPV vaccines. Search queries were created for CINAHL Plus, Embase, and PubMed. Our search strategy focused on articles that contained information on HPV vaccine uptake/reach, HPV vaccination costs, or the cost-effectiveness of HPV vaccination programs. We retrieved 773 articles from the databases, assessed 251 full-texts, and included 15 articles in our final synthesis. Countries without national HPV vaccination programs aimed to identify and adopt sustainable strategies to make HPV vaccines available to adolescents through demonstration programs. In contrast, countries with national vaccination programs focused on identifying cost-effective interventions to increase vaccination rates to meet nationally recommended standards. There is a dire need for HPV vaccination programs and intervention studies tailored to settings in low- and middle-income countries to increase access to HPV vaccines. Future studies should also evaluate the cost-effectiveness of implemented strategies.
