Progress in women’s health runs up against funding cuts

Scientific breakthroughs — from next-generation vaccines to long-acting medications to prevent HIV — are fueling new hope in women’s health. But experts warn that persistent gaps in funding and access could stall that progress.

At a STAT event this week, Ruanne Barnabas, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, described the potential for progress following a 2022 study she helped lead, in which researchers found that a single dose of the HPV vaccine could be just as effective as two. She said it was “no accident” or simple stroke of luck that the vaccine performed so well.

“We can now do bespoke antigen design to make new vaccines — we can make vaccines in a room just about the size of this stage — and they can be highly efficacious,” she said.