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A RESOLUTION encouraging efforts to protect individuals within King County from human papillomavirus-associated cancers and other conditions by improving human papillomavirus vaccination rates and increasing knowledge and acceptance of human papillomavirus vaccines among parents and adolescents.

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                     WHEREAS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly eighty million Americans, which is one in four, are currently infected with at least one type of human papillomavirus, and

                     WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that human papillomavirus infections are responsible for an estimated thirty thousand seven hundred new cancer cases each year in the United States, and

                     WHEREAS, human papillomavirus is thought to be responsible for more than ninety percent of anal and cervical cancers, about seventy percent of vaginal and vulvar cancers and more than sixty percent of penile cancers, and

                     WHEREAS, the incidence of noncervical cancers associated with human papillomavirus is increasing, and

                     WHEREAS, in Washington state, the overall annual rate of all human papillomavirus-associated cancers is 11.2 per one hundred thousand persons, which equates to an average of two hundred thirty human papillomavirus-associated cancers diagnosed in King County annually, and

                     WHEREAS, in King County, American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic women have the highest rates of cervical cancer, followed by black, Asian/Pacific Islander and white women, and

                     WHEREAS, human papillomavirus vaccines are recommended by the United States Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for males and females ages eleven to twelve, with "catch-up" doses for females up to age twenty-six and for males up to age twenty-one who were not vaccinated earlier in adolescence, and

                     WHEREAS, the United States Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also recommends human papillomavirus vaccination for men age twenty-two through twenty-six years who have sex with men or who are immunocompromised, and

                     WHEREAS, more than seven years of  vaccine safety monitoring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration provide continued evidence of the safety of human papillomavirus vaccines, and

                     WHEREAS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, progress in the United States toward achievement of the Healthy People 2020 goal of eighty percent human papillomavirus vaccination coverage among thirteen- to fifteen-year-olds has stagnated, resulting in ongoing vulnerability to human papillomavirus-related morbidity and mortality, and

                     WHEREAS, Washington state Immunization Information System data indicate that local human papillomavirus vaccination coverage levels continue to be inadequate with only thirty-eight percent of thirteen-to-seventeen-year-old girls and twenty-six percent of thirteen-to-seventeen-year-old boys in King County completing the three-dose human papillomavirus vaccine series, and

                     WHEREAS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, missed clinical opportunities are the most important reason why the United States has not achieved high rates of human papillomavirus vaccine uptake, and

                     WHEREAS, parents' knowledge, attitudes and beliefs affect whether their children receive vaccines, and

                     WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the President's Cancer Panel have identified improving uptake of human papillomavirus vaccines as a public health priority to reduce cancer in the United States;

                     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Health of King County:

                     A.  The Board of Health supports efforts by Public Health - Seattle & King County to establish a learning collaborative where key stakeholders will engage in quality improvement processes to better understand the barriers that contribute to suboptimal adolescent coverage of the human papillomavirus vaccine, as well as other vaccines, implement process change interventions, conduct an evaluation, disseminate best practices, work to understand disproportionality in vaccination rates across communities and specifically target communication and interventions to communities that have experienced disproportionately lower rates of vaccination;

                     B.  The Board of Health encourages health care providers to take advantage of all appropriate clinical opportunities to strongly recommend the human papillomavirus vaccine to adolescent patients so as to prevent human papillomavirus-related diseases in the future; and

                     C.  The Board of Health endorses coordinated communication campaigns to educate parents about the long-term risks associated with human papillomavirus infection and to accurately convey the benefits of human papillomavirus vaccine.