HPV Vaccine for Men

BY GINA BRICK 

It is commonly known, after June of 2006, that girls between the ages of nine and twenty-six are suppose to receive the Human Papillomavirus vaccine. Now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommend that boys age 11 and 12 years old get the Vaccine as well.

The vaccine may offer males protection against genital warts and cancers. And as a result of this vaccination in males it will indirectly protect women at the same time by reducing the transmission rate of HPV.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, about 60% of female college students will become infected with HPV by the end of there third year in college.  With this being said now is the best time to vaccinate males, since rates of getting this vaccine in females are relatively low right now. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said the relatively low level of vaccination among girls was a key reason for the change.

HPV is linked to almost 13,000 cases of cervical cancer yearly in US women, 4,300 of which are fatal, and nearly 6,000 cases of anal cancer and 770 deaths in men. HPV is also said to be linked to a rise in head and neck cancers due to its transmission during oral sex. HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease, with more than 40 types. HPV often causes no symptoms at all. The body can usually clear the infection on its own within two years, but with certain types, known as oncogenic strains, they can turn into cancers and at that point should be closely watched.

Ultimately the most efficient way to prevent this disease in women would be to make this vaccination mandatory for all women to get but until this happens the best way to help prevent this disease is to get men vaccinated as well.

LINKS 

http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/stdfact-hpv-vaccine-young-women.htm

http://news.yahoo.com/us-panel-urges-hpv-vaccine-boys-095720371.html

 

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