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Please sign the petition to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) asking it to reverse the newly imposed Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination mandate for immigrant women and girls.

In 2007, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that Gardasil, the only FDA approved HPV vaccine, be administered to females ages 11 to 26 in the U.S. This recommendation became an automatic requirement for those applying for immigrant visas or adjustment to permanent residency status when the government updated its vaccination list in July 2008. Although the HPV vaccine has been deemed safe and effective by the FDA, it is not designed to combat the types of infectious diseases that the immigration requirements are intended to address. Moreover, the vaccine is prohibitively expensive-costing a minimum of $360 to receive the three-dose vaccination in addition to over $1,000 in filing fees-making the mandate an undue financial burden for prospective immigrant women and their families.

Please join us in asking the CDC to retract its listing of HPV as a required vaccination for immigrants in the revised Technical Instructions to the Civil Surgeons for Vaccination Requirements, which would eliminate the directive for civil surgeons to administer the vaccine to immigrant females ages 11 to 26.

UPDATE: The CDC has published a set of proposed criteria to review vaccination requirements for immigration purposes. Read our Joint Comment to CDC in Support of Criteria for Vaccination Requirements for U.S. Immigration Purposes.

» Learn more about the HPV Vaccine Mandate.