HPV, the human papilloma virus, is a common virus that can cause six types of cancer. The HPV vaccine is able to prevent 90% of those cancers. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute Community Outreach Team is on a mission to educate and vaccinate communities across Oregon. Using teaching modules designed to increase awareness of the virus, knowledge of its risks and acceptance of the HPV vaccine as cancer prevention, the outreach team partners with local community organizations to disseminate evidence-based information and resources in six different languages.
“If we want to improve people’s health care, we need to make it convenient for them. I think mobile outreach is a step in the right direction.”
In this episode, follow Derrik Zebroski, the mobile outreach coordinator at the Knight Cancer Institute, as he discusses the impact of mobile outreach in reducing health disparities and barriers to access as he journeys into rural communities across Oregon to help remove the burden of cancer.
A preventable disease
90%
The number of HPV-caused cancers that are prevented by the HPV vaccine, which has been available in the U.S. since 2006.
The need for outreach
10+
Counties in Oregon that have HPV vaccination rates below 40%
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