Secondary school students knowledge and awareness of HPV infections and vaccine.

The HPV infections are the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world and particularly affect sexually active young individualsHigh risk human papillomavirus subtypes 16, 18, 31, 33 and 45 are associated with 99.7% of all cervical cancers. The HPV vaccine represents a major step toward the prevention of cervical cancer and is recommended for girls aged between 11 and 12 as it prevents infections from HPV types 6, 11, 16 and 18 and promises to dramatically reduce the incidence of HPV infection, genital warts, and cytological abnormalities. The aim of our study was to investigate basic knowledge of HPV, the infection related effects, the HPV vaccine, and the will to receive the vaccination, in students, aged between 11 and 13, of middle school grade; we consideredthose as a target population for an efficacious vaccination strategy, in a geographic region where few previous studies exist, the southern Italian cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria.Our results suggest that all the sources of information about HPV (schools, family, media, etc.) were deficient. Finally it is clear from this study and the existing literature that more education programs about HPV and HPV vaccination is urgently needed for schools students, families and teachers.