The aim of our study was to evaluate the attitudes and knowledge of pediatricians concerning the human papilloma virus vaccine (HPV) in Turkey. A three - part questionnaire was conducted by 90 pediatric research assistants working in the Department of Pediatrics at Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine. Only 38.9% of the participants recommended the HPV vaccine to their patients. Only 36.7% of the respondents knew who to recommend the vaccine to in terms of gender and age. In the second part of the survey, according to pediatricians, the most common reason for the cause of the low rate of HPV vaccination in Turkey was the fact that it is not a part of the national immunization schedule (73.3%). This was followed by the expense of the vaccination (68.9%), followed by social stigmas (58.9%). In the third part of the questionnaire, pediatricians were asked why they did not recommend the vaccine, the most important factor was the fact that they did not feel that they had sufficient knowledge about vaccination (53.3%). In conclusion, although pediatricians are the most effective physicians when vaccination are concerned, we found that the level of knowledge about vaccination was very low in this study, vaccination rates would increase as a result of the vaccines being part of the national vaccination schedule.

Keywords: human papilloma virus, HPV vaccine, cervix cancer, pediatricians