Conclusion

In Canada, suboptimal HPV vaccine uptake remains a critical public health issue. 6 While provincial and territorial school-based HPV vaccination programs effectively vaccinate a large proportion of adolescents, overall uptake remains below the NACI’s 90% target uptake goal. 6 Current binary, gendered approaches to HPV vaccination pose significant challenges to equitably reducing HPV-related infections and associated diseases amongst underserved and under-vaccinated populations, including young adults, transgender peoples and MSM.

Addressing HPV vaccine-related disparities requires a coordinated, multi-level call to action involving collaboration between academic, clinical and community partners to normalize inclusive vaccination. This paper highlights various inequities in the distribution and uptake of HPV vaccination, which if left unaddressed, risks exacerbating vaccine-preventable morbidity and mortality. Achieving widespread HPV vaccine uptake depends upon various interrelated factors: strong HCP recommendation, accessible community-based vaccination services, and equitable representation of diverse populations in vaccine communication/messaging. Normalizing inclusive HPV vaccination is an urgent and necessary step that requires commitment at local, provincial/territorial and national levels to eliminate HPV-related diseases and strive towards global initiatives of health equity.