This week marks European Immunization Week, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) today highlighted a new report marking 15 years of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in the region. Now all European Union countries have HPV recommendations in place for both adolescent girls and boys. 

Three countries, Iceland, Portugal, and Norway, have reached the 2024 target of 90% HPV vaccination among girls by the age of 15 years. Since 2020, the ECDC said all European countries have reported a decreased incidence of cervical cancer among vaccinated women.

The elimination of cervical cancer in the EU/EEA is becoming an achievable goal.

“The elimination of cervical cancer in the EU/EEA is becoming an achievable goal, thanks to the HPV vaccination programmes. The progress we are seeing across Europe demonstrates what can be accomplished when countries invest consistently in effective immunisation strategies,” said Bruno Ciancio, MD, MS, head of the ECDC’s Directly Transmitted Diseases and Vaccine Preventable Diseases Unit, in an ECDC statement. 

The report shares a growing body of research conducted in European countries showing sustained protection against cervical cancer among HPV vaccine recipients. A Swedish study cited revealed that vaccination of girls before the age of 17 reduced the incidence of cervical cancer by 88%.

The ECDC also announced today the launch of a new dashboard, which will display vaccination coverage for HPV and for other vaccine-preventable infections across the European Union. The ECDC said the dashboard will give a transparent, up-to-date overview of how each European country is performing in terms of vaccination coverage. 

It’s well established that HIV speeds up the aging process, possibly due to chronic inflammation. But antiretroviral therapy (ART) can slow down and possibly even reverse aging caused by an infection, according to new research presented in Munich at the annual meeting of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID).

Researchers estimated biological age by developing a tool called the proteomic aging clock (PAC,) which analyzes protein patterns in blood plasma to estimate a person’s biological age.

Using PAC, the study examined the plasma of people with HIV. They looked at samples from patients, both when they had detected levels of HIV in their blood but had yet to begin ART, and then when their infections were undetectable owing to treatment. 

Researchers found that when HIV was untreated, participants’ biological age was accelerated by a median of 10 years. But after a median duration of 1.55 years of ART,  they documented a statistically significant mean reduction of 3.7 years in proteomic age. The analysis found that a person’s proteomic age continued to move closer to their chronological age the longer they were on ART. Researchers say this suggests ongoing biological recovery with sustained treatment.

“This research demonstrates the importance of early start and optimal adherence to ART," Barry Ryan, PhD, a scientist at the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne and the study’s lead author, said in an ESCMID press release.