More evidence HPV vaccine doesn’t promote risky sex

By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Young women who get the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine don’t see it as a license to have more sexual partners or forgo condoms, a new study confirms. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls for both girls and boys to be vaccinated against HPV, the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. Some parents have been concerned that the vaccine might promote risky sex, however, and the issue of HPV vaccination became a topic of debate during the 2012 Republican primaries. But in the new study, even the small group of girls who misunderstood their risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) after getting vaccinated didn’t change their behavior as a result, researchers found.