More than 115,000 Year 8 students received vaccinations against human papillomavirus infections in colleges and medical-social establishments during the 2024-2025 school year, according to a report published Friday, still far from health objectives.
If we also take into account parallel vaccinations in the city (doctors, nurses, pharmacies…), the proportion of adolescents born in 2012 vaccinated with two doses reached 35% in girls and 27% in boys, indicates in particular Public Health France (SpF).
The vaccination campaign has thus enabled an "increase of approximately 15 points in vaccination coverage" among these adolescents, the agency notes.
“Although the increase in coverage was more marked during the previous vaccination campaign” – more than 20 points – the overall progress during the 2024-2025 school year “demonstrates the effectiveness of the deployment of the campaign in schools,” SpF judges.
Territorial disparities persist: "vaccination coverage was lower in the overseas departments and regions than in metropolitan France," and "in metropolitan France, it was lowest in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Corsica and Ile-de-France regions and highest in Brittany."
This 2024-2025 report has "limitations", linked to incomplete data reporting, the health agency specifies, judging "likely that the number of vaccinations done in middle school, the vaccination coverage and the share of vaccinations carried out in middle school are underestimated".
Vaccination against papillomavirus, which prevents up to 90% of HPV infections that cause cancers (uterus, anus, ENT…), is recommended in France for adolescents aged 11 to 14 years, with catch-up vaccination possible up to 26 years.
Since September 2023, all middle school students in public schools and some private schools under contract can be vaccinated with full coverage by health insurance, subject to authorization from both parents.
Since the start of the 2024 school year, this vaccination has also been offered to 11-14 year olds in care facilities.
A new campaign against papillomavirus, now combined with vaccination against certain invasive meningococcal infections, is planned from January to June 2026 in all establishments hosting adolescents aged 11 to 14 years.
Because France remains far from the 8e0% target of vaccination coverage by 2030 of its ten-year strategy 2021-2030 against cancers: less than half of girls and less than a third of boys have so far received two doses.
Each year in France, some 6,000 new cases of cancer are attributable to infections linked to papillomavirus.
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