Evidence of herd protection against oral human papillomavirus (HPV) infections in men and women who did not receive the HPV vaccine has been found in a US study.

Researchers used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to generate nationally representative data on oral HPV infections in the US from 2009-16.

During the study period, HPV vaccination rates increased from 0% to 5.8% in men and from 7.3% to 15.1% in women, said Dr Maura Gillison, of the MD Anderson Cancer Center, in Houston, and co-authors in a paper in JAMA.

In unvaccinated men, the prevalence of oral HPV infections of the types included in the vaccine declined by 37% between 2009 and 2016 (from 2.7% to 1.6%), suggestive of herd protection against oral HPV infections, they say.