SC health officials stress importance of lifesaving vaccine legislators twice rejected

University of Miami pediatrician Judith L. Schaechter, M.D. (L) gives an HPV vaccination to a 13-year-old girl in her office at the Miller School of Medicine on September 21, 2011 in Miami, Florida. The vaccine for human papillomavirus, or HPV, is given to prevent a sexually transmitted infection that can cause cancer. (File/Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s public health agency is encouraging parents to protect their children from half a dozen types of cancer with a vaccine that lawmakers spent a decade debating before agreeing to even allow its promotion.

To mark National Immunization Awareness Month, state health officials are focusing on the lifesaving capabilities of the HPV vaccine, which prevents 90% of cancers associated with the virus, primarily cervical cancer.

“Nearly everyone will get HPV at some point in their lives,” Dr. Edward Simmer, interim director of the Department of Public Health, said about the virus that causes more than 9 of every 10 cases of cervical cancer.

“Starting the vaccination series today will help protect your child from the cancers caused by HPV later in their lives,” he continued. “Vaccines protect your child before they are exposed to an infection. That’s why we give HPV vaccination earlier rather than later, to protect them long before they are ever exposed.”

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the two-shot full dose for 11- and 12-year-olds. Those over 15 need three shots for a full dose. Vaccination is not generally recommended for adults over 26, though it may be beneficial to some older patients, as determined by their doctor.

Just 54% of South Carolinians between ages 13 and 17 are fully vaccinated against HPV, according to the state health agency. Nationally, the percentage is 64%.

The virus is usually transmitted through sex or other skin-to-skin contact and is very common. Among people who are not vaccinated, the vast majority of people will contract it by age 45, Simmer said.

Most people never know they have the infection, and the body gets rid of it naturally. But it can turn to cancer if the immune system lets the infection linger and cells become abnormal, according to the CDC.

The most recent data for South Carolina shows 881 cases of cancer associated with the virus in 2021, and 291 deaths from those cancers.

The ability of public health officials to promote the vaccine in South Carolina has been controversial.

In 2007, a bill that would have mandated girls in seventh grade receive the HPV vaccine brought heavy criticism, particularly from faith-based groups who argued it would encourage promiscuity. It was eventually defeated unanimously in the House after its sponsor, Columbia-area GOP Rep. Joan Brady, moved to kill her own bill as the floor debate dragged on.

Five years later, the Legislature passed a bipartisan bill to promote the vaccine without mandating it.

The proposal would have allowed the state health agency to offer the vaccine and authorized school districts to distribute educational brochures to parents of sixth graders. But it was vetoed by then-Gov. Nikki Haley , and the House failed to muster the supermajority vote needed to override it.

At the time, Haley said the government should not be involved in recommending a vaccine and did not want parents thinking it was mandatory.

In 2016 , however, a very similar bill passed the General Assembly, and Haley signed it.

There were some changes. It included more requirements for the brochure, such as listing side effects. And it banned the state health department from contracting with any health care provider to distribute the vaccine if the provider also performed abortions — basically, an anti-Planned Parenthood provision.

Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Columbia, was the chief sponsor of the 2016 law. She ousted Brady in 2012 , after the last proposal on HPV vaccines failed. It was her first bill to become law, she told the SC Daily Gazette.

Bernstein said she worked with Republicans to pass it and collaborated with outside groups like the state Academy of Pediatrics Association. Both chambers passed it overwhelmingly. But it continued to have opposition.

“We had conservative members who also thought it would encourage teens to have sex,” Bernstein wrote to the Gazette.

Haley signed the bill but didn’t celebrate it with a public, ceremonial signing — likely because of the controversy, Bernstein said.

That 2016 law is still what authorizes the Department of Public Health to distribute the vaccine, according to an agency spokesperson.

Children and teens can get the HPV vaccine from their medical provider.

It is among vaccines covered by Medicaid. It’s also provided for free through federal and state programs to those without insurance or with insurance that does not cover vaccines. The programs provide the shots at public health offices, rural health clinics and private providers .

The Medical University of South Carolina also has a mobile van that travels the state to make HPV vaccinations easily accessible.