The states with the lowest rates of HPV vaccination are the same ones with the highest rates of cervical cancer. Previous research has found similarly low rates of HPV vaccination in the South, something that’s concerned researchers for years. “If a lower rate of HPV vaccine uptake in the South persists, it could contribute to the national burden of cervical cancer in the long run,” Dr. Abbey Berenson, a researcher at UTMB, pointed out last year after publishing the results from a study that highlighted this discrepancy.