Assessment of the first HPV vaccination campaign in two northern Italian health districts

From December 2008 the Italian region of Lombardy started offering the vaccine against HPV to all schoolgirls aged 12. Many topics like knowledge, organization and acceptability should be addressed. This study investigated the compliance to the first vaccination campaign in two suburbs of Milan and assessed the knowledge about HPV and cervical cancer among the mothers of the recipients and the opinions of the healthcare professionals about the campaign by using anonymous multiple choice questionnaires. Knowledge about HPV among mothers went from 63% to 76% after vaccination. Healthcare professionals gave an average grading of 5.7 (scale 1-10) about organization and management of the campaign. Coverage of the immunization campaign was quite poor: after the first round only 55.3% got vaccinated with the first dose. Knowledge of mothers of the recipients is still to improve, particularly among immigrants and less educated. It is necessary to implement information campaigns to improve knowledge about HPV and the acceptability of the new vaccine.