Each fall and winter, millions of Americans respond to healthservice exhortations to get inoculated against that year's influenza strains. Other vaccines, however, have seen considerably lower rates of public acceptance, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; among them, the human papilloma virus (HPV), shingles, and whooping cough vaccines.
Although the PDA-approved HPV vaccine protects against the four viruses that cause 70% of cervical cancers and 90% of genital warts, only 10% of 18- to 26-year-old women have gotten it. Only 1.9% of patients have received shingles vaccine, which can cut their risk by half; ...