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RecruitingNCT04953130Add-VaccUpdated Sep 8, 2026

Adding Male Single Dose HPV Vaccination to Female HPV Vaccination in Tanzania

A Phase 4 interventional study of Gardasil® HPV vaccine in HPV Infection and Vaccine Preventable Disease, sponsored by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Recruiting at 1 site in Tanzania. Open to male participants aged 14 Years to 18 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-08.

Sponsored by London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine · Phase 4, Interventional, and Prevention

From the registry’s dates

  • Started Aug 2022; still recruiting 4 years 3 months later.
Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
10,400
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
14 Years to 18 Years
Sex
Male
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Study summary

Add-Vacc is an unblinded cluster-randomised trial (CRT) with two arms: (i) the national HPV vaccination programme (girls aged \~14 years, control arm) and (ii) the national programme plus single-dose male HPV vaccination given to a multi-year cohort of boys (intervention arm). The CRT will be conducted in 26 communities/clusters (13 per arm) in northern Tanzania. Boys aged 14 to 18 years in the intervention arm will receive one dose of the 4-valent HPV vaccine (Gardasil®) that protects against HPV 6, 11, 16, and 18. Population genital HPV prevalence in 18 to 21-year-olds will be compared between intervention clusters (female and male vaccination) and control clusters (female vaccination only) at 3 years after the intervention. Blood sampling for immune responses and adverse event data collection will be performed in a subset of 200 male subjects in selected intervention clusters.

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Conditions studied

  • HPV Infection
  • Vaccine Preventable Disease
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In context

Papillomavirus Infections

576 studies on the registry are indexed under Papillomavirus Infections; 132 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 10,400 is above the median of 235 across 402 interventional studies indexed under Papillomavirus Infections.

Browse Papillomavirus Infections studies →

Lead sponsor

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is the lead sponsor of 298 studies on the registry; 15 are open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
14 Years to 18 Years
Sexes eligible
Male
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Parents and adult male participants (aged 18 years) must sign an ICF and male participants aged less than 18 years must sign an informed assent form (IAF), indicating that they understand the purpose of and procedures required for the study and are willing to participate in the study and to receive HPV vaccination. If the parent or participant cannot read or write, the procedures must be explained and /assent must be witnessed by a literate third party who is not involved in the conduct of the study.
  • Participants must have been born male, and must be aged 14 to 18 years inclusive at time of vaccination.
  • Participants must be living in an intervention community (cluster).
  • Participants must be willing and able to comply with the protocol requirements.
  • Participants must agree to avoid all non-trial immunisations in the 14 days following vaccination with the trial vaccine, other than emergency vaccinations such as post-exposure rabies or tetanus vaccinations.
  • Participants must be healthy as determined by a medical history. A physical examination will be conducted if necessary according to the clinician's judgement.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

Boys will be excluded from HPV vaccination if:

  • They have previously been vaccinated against HPV.
  • They have a history of allergy or anaphylaxis to one or more of the HPV vaccine components, to yeast or to latex.
  • They are enrolled in another vaccine research study that specifically specifies that they must not participate in a study of another vaccine
  • They have been diagnosed with a chronic condition (except , as per the comment above), such as an condition, sickle cell disease, degenerative disease, neurologic or genetic disease, among others;
  • There are significant conditions or findings for which, in the opinion of the investigator, participation would not be in the best interest of the participant (e.g., it would compromise their safety or well-being).
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

HIV

The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.

Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.

Autoimmune disease

A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.

Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.

Clinically significant

Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.

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Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Prevention
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
10,400 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Male vaccination + national HPV vaccination programme

    Single dose of the 4-valent HPV vaccine (Gardasil®; Merck \& Co.) offered to all eligible boys aged 14 to 18 years in the 13 intervention communities. Girls aged 14 years are offered 2 doses of Gardasil® through the Tanzanian national HPV vaccine programme

    Biological: Gardasil® HPV vaccine

  • Active comparator
    National HPV vaccination programme only

    Girls aged 14 years are offered 2 doses of Gardasil® through the Tanzanian national HPV vaccine programme

    Biological: Gardasil® HPV vaccine

Interventions

  • BiologicalGardasil® HPV vaccine

    Single dose 4-valent HPV vaccine in males. Gardasil®, manufactured by MSD, consists of a licensed prophylactic virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine that protects against 4 HPV genotypes (HPV 6, 11, 16, 18).

    Also known as: 4-valent HPV vaccine

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Impact of adding single-dose male HPV vaccination to the national HPV vaccination programme in girls on population 4-valent HPV genotype prevalence in 18 to 21-year-old females and males

    Prevalence of 4-valent vaccine HPV genotype DNA (HPV 6, 11, 16 or 18) in males and females aged 18 to 21 years in intervention clusters and control clusters 36 months post-male vaccination

    Time frame: Month 36

Secondary outcomes

  1. Immunogenicity and safety of single dose 4-valent HPV vaccination in boys

    Proportion seroconverting to, and geometric mean antibody titres (GMTs) for, HPV vaccine genotypes, and safety and tolerability (local and systemic adverse events), measured in a subset of 200 vaccinated boys

    Time frame: Month 12, 24 and 36

  2. Impact of female-only vaccination through the national vaccination programme on population HPV prevalence in 18 to 21-year-old males and females

    The proportion of females, and of males, aged 18 to 21 years in the control arm with detectable genital 4-valent HPV vaccine genotype DNA at baseline and at M36.

    Time frame: Month 36

  3. Uptake of dose 1 and coverage of dose 2 in eligible target groups for the national HPV vaccination programme;

    The proportion of females aged 16 years who received 1 dose of HPV vaccine (uptake) and who complete 2 doses (coverage) by arm at baseline and M36

    Time frame: Month 36

  4. Acceptability of a gender-neutral approach to HPV vaccination

    Self-reported acceptability of and barriers to receiving male vaccination by community members and to delivering male HPV vaccination by health care workers (HCW)

    Time frame: Month 24

  5. Cost-effectiveness of adding a multi-year single dose male HPV vaccination strategy to the national female HPV vaccination programme

    Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio for single dose male vaccination plus existing female vaccination programme compared to female vaccination only

    Time frame: Month 36

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Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
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References and documents

Publications

  • Bergman H, Henschke N, Arevalo-Rodriguez I, Buckley BS, Crosbie EJ, Davies JC, Dwan K, Golder SP, Loke YK, Probyn K, Petkovic J, Villanueva G, Morrison J. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for the prevention of cervical cancer and other HPV-related diseases: a network meta-analysis. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2025 Nov 24;11(11):CD015364. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD015364.pub2. PubMed 41276263 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Undecided

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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 8, 2026, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04953130
Collaborators
Mwanza Intervention Trials Unit, National Institute for Medical Research, York Biomedical Research Institute, Hull York Medical School, University of York, Cancer Epidemiology Research Programme Institut Català d' Oncologia, Karolinska Institute Department of Laboratory Medicine, University of Cambridge
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jul 7, 2021
Start date
Aug 1, 2022
Primary completion
Dec 2026 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2026 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 8, 2026

Study contacts

Deborah Watson-Jones, MD, PhD
Contact
deborah.watson-jones@lshtm.ac.uk

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
Yes
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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