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Written question asked by Countess of Mar (Crossbench) on Wednesday, 13 June 2018, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 27 June 2018. It was answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy (Conservative) on Wednesday, 27 June 2018 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Human Papillomavirus

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether colposcopy clinics test all human papilloma virus (HPV) infections for strain types in cohorts of women who were offered HPV vaccination; and if not, why not.

Answer

Human papillomavirus (HPV) triage testing is performed in the screening programme on specimens collected from women attending for cervical screening which show borderline or low grade abnormalities. If this test identifies a high-risk HPV infection then the woman will be referred to colposcopy. No further HPV testing is conducted in colposcopy on these specimens to identity the specific HPV types. It is not the role of colposcopy to test HPV infections.

However, Public Health England does carry out surveillance which has demonstrated a reduction in the HPV types included in the vaccines since the introduction of the national vaccination programme.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL8602
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Testing Vaccination Human papillomavirus
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk