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HPV vaccine funded for boys
HPV vaccine funded for boys
As students have headed back to school this week, boys, as well as girls, will have funded access to the HPV vaccine Gardasil.
The funding rollout follows Pharmac's decision last year to extend the vaccine programme. This week the Ministry of Health has launched an awareness campaign to inform parents and caregivers of Year 8 boys and girls about the benefits of HPV immunisation.
Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman said HPV-related cancers caused more than 50 deaths in New Zealand every year, many of which were preventable.
“A growing proportion of throat cancers are caused by HPV and they affect males at higher rates than females. Immunisation protects both males and females from most cancers caused by HPV.”
While Gardasil is commonly known for protecting against HPV-related cervical cancers, experts stressed that it could offer protection for boys and men from other related cancers.
"The HPV vaccines were originally designed for protection against cervical cancer," Associate Professor Nikki Turner said. "However, it is now very clear that HPV viruses are causative agents for many more cancers than just cervical cancer."
Turner, the director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre, said while vaccinating young women offered herd immunity to their sexual contacts. "vaccinating men as well offers broader herd immunity for the community, and particularly to groups who do not get protection from just women vaccination i.e. men who have sex with men. Hence there is a real ethical argument for offering the vaccination to men and women".
Dr Peter Saxton, director of the Gay Men's Sexual Health research group at the University of Auckland, said the gender-neutral vaccine programme in Australia had "almost eliminated the early signs of HPV-related disease in young people, such as genital warts".
It was important to offer the vaccine early as “HPV is very easily transmitted and almost impossible to avoid unless you’re sexually abstinent for life," Dr Saxton said.
"Vaccinating early is best because you never know when a teenager’s first time will be or who it will be with. Vaccinating boys also sends a positive message that protection against HPV-related disease is a shared responsibility. Shared responsibility and mutual care are good values to communicate to young people about their sexual health and their wellbeing generally.”
The SMC gathered an expert Q&A on the vaccine programme's extension.
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