A team of students and faculty from the college of pharmacy are conducting a long-term research project that aims to educate residents of White County about the importance of receiving vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV), and eventually administer the vaccination in local clinics.
Parisa Khan, a second year student pharmacist, said because of a link between HPV infection and cervical cancer, as well as the abnormally high rate of cervical cancer in White County, the college of pharmacy wants to use its resources to help reverse the problem.
“The whole reason we started the project is that the cervical cancer rate in White County is twice that of the national incidence,” Khan said. “We felt that it was important to get those numbers down. By educating the public in the White County area about HPV and the vaccine, — and we he hope to expand beyond White County eventually — we think it would help prevent the cancer.”
Rayanne Story, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice who works with the project, said the project aims to raise awareness about and show the relevance of HPV vaccinations. Story said that although HPV is a sexually transmitted infection, the project in no way intends to encourage sexual activity outside of marriage. She said she believes vaccination is nevertheless an important preventative measure to protect against contracting the infection in the event of circumstances such as rape.
Story said the team aims to eventually administer the vaccinations in local clinics as part of the project, but doubts people will opt to receive the vaccinations without first receiving further information.
“Ultimately, we want to actually administer the vaccine, because pharmacists in Arkansas can administer immunizations for people over the age of seven,” Story said. “We would like to collaborate with the health department in an effort to do some vaccination in clinics, but we don’t think anyone will really show up if they don’t know and understand why it’s important. We also want to make sure that men are aware that this can affect them too, and there is now a vaccination for them.”
In order to determine how much the community knows about HPV, Khan said the team has administered several surveys among community leaders, healthcare professionals and other members of the community, and plans to administer them in Harding wellness classes in January.
“We have conducted several surveys over the years to show that there is a severe lack of knowledge, and to tailor our educational tools to best inform members of the community,” Khan said.
Although the project is currently focused on researching the level of knowledge about HPV in the community, Ellen Jones, a second year student pharmacist, said the team has already made efforts to begin educating locals.
“We have done educational presentations in the last few years, like continuing education classes for pharmacists, radio programming, an article in Searcy Living, a presentation to Harding undergraduates, and now we are just continuing to improve that education,” Jones said.
Story said the project does not have a specific end-point, but students and faculty plan to continue researching and educating community members as long as the problem remains widespread.
