Medical societies' recommendations for immunization with Human Papillomavirus vaccine and disclosure of conflicts of interests

Abstract

Objective: To review the recommendations on Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination issued by different medical societies, as well as disclosures of any conflict of interests regarding such recommendations. Methods: The search for recommendations was mainly conducted through the Internet, together with a bibliography search on Pubmed (November 2008). The countries were selected to encompass a broad range of healthcare systems and income levels. Results: In all, 18 documents were identified: 4 from the U.S., 5 from Canada, and 1 from France (all 10 in favor of recommending vaccination), 5 from Spain (3 in favor of vaccination and 2 recommending no vaccination until further evidence of the vaccine effectiveness to prevent cervical cancer becomes available), 2 from Argentina (one in favor of vaccination and another pointing to the missing information on the vaccine's cost-effectiveness), and 1 from Chile (recommending no vaccination until more information becomes available). Only two documents disclose specific conflicts of interests for authors (American Cancer Society and Chilean Working Group on HPV). One of the Canadian documents did not include any conflict of interest statement, although Merck and GSK are listed among the sponsors. Conclusions: Disclosure of conflicts of interest in documents where medical societies issue recommendations on HPV vaccination is very unusual. However, lack of disclosure is more frequent (near twice) when recommendations are in favor of the vaccination.