SAN MATEO (KRON) — Vaccines have stirred quite the debate among parents in recent years.
But on Friday, a Bay Area health department is urging them to get children vaccinated for the human papilloma virus.
Doctors have linked HPV to several cancers that studies have shown can be prevented with a series of shots.
In San Mateo, teens joined in on the conversation. Most teens and younger adults KRON spoke with said they weren’t too sure if they’ve gotten the HPV vaccine, which worries the San Mateo County health officials who know for a fact that less than half of students in the area are getting the preventative shots.
HPV, or human papilloma virus, is the most common sexually transmitted disease in America.
The Centers for Disease Control said 79 million people are infected.
Now, San Mateo county health officials are pushing parents to get their kids vaccinated before school starts, saying only 30 percent in the count have already done so.
“I feel like I might have, I’m not sure yet,” teen Alexa Frankos said. “But I’ll probably go check just to see if I have gotten it.”
HPV is proven to cause several forms of cancer, which is why the department is pushing the initiative specifically to children in middle school.
“So, we want to make sure they are vaccinated before they are sexually active, so we don’t want to wait until they are 16 or 17 because it might be too late,” San Mateo County Health Officer Scott Morrow said.
Most KRON spoke with agreed the benefits outweigh unproven concerns regarding the vaccine.
And they hope more people continue to get the shots.
“I would say you should probably get it because it’s probably now or never because it could happen in the future and you could eventually get it,” teen Katherine Martinez said.