Towards Global HPV Eradication: Single-Dose HPV Vaccination vs. Pseudoscience

Human papillomavirus (HPV) can cause cervical cancer. Global viral eradication relies on specific criteria, including a single host species and effective vaccines, a feat successfully achieved with smallpox and rinderpest. Although measles is also a candidate for elimination, its progress has been hindered by vaccine hesitancy based on misinformation about vaccine safety. Similarly, HPV is an ideal candidate for eradication due to its strict human infectivity and the proven vaccine efficacy in reducing cancer rates and establishing herd immunity. We highlighted the growing global consensus on single-dose HPV vaccination to improve feasibility and compliance with comparable effectiveness and safety to three-dose vaccination. Supporting this, we demonstrated that mice receiving a single HPV vaccine produced anti-HPV antibodies without a prolonged pro-inflammatory cytokine profile. On the other hand, in Japan, a nine-year suspension of proactive government recommendations occurred due to alleged adverse events termed “HPV vaccination-associated neuro-immunopathic syndrome (HANS),” drastically reducing vaccination rates, despite rigorous international studies have confirmed the vaccine’s safety. Critical scientific evaluation demonstrated that HANS failed to meet the criteria for autoimmune diseases (Witebsky’s postulates); no evidence has been presented that HANS is a novel autoimmune disease. The claim of molecular mimicry between HPV L1 and human proteins was based solely on flawed computational analyses. Furthermore, the hypothesis implicating a pathogenic role for aluminum adjuvants was unsupported by experimental evidence; HANS animal models were flawed methodologically and unreproducible experimentally. In summary, we believe that implementing worldwide HPV vaccination strategies, including gender-neutral and single-dose programs, as well as denouncing pseudoscientific claims hold the potential to eliminate high-risk HPV types globally.