Boys aged between 12 and 13 in England will be given a
vaccine to protect them against HPV-related cancers,
Public Health Minister has announced today.
The decision follows new scientific
evidence and advice from an independent panel of
experts. Updated evidence from the Joint Committee
on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommends that
the existing HPV vaccination programme for girls should
be extended to boys as well.
The vaccine not only protects men from HPV-related
diseases – such as oral, throat and anal cancer – but
also helps reduce the overall number of cervical
cancers in women, though a process known as ‘herd
immunity’.
The extension of the vaccine to boys follows the
success of England’s HPV vaccination programme for
girls and the recent introduction of one for men who
have sex with men. The programme is expected to
vaccinate thousands of boys in England each year.
England will now be one of a small number of countries
to offer HPV vaccination for both girls and boys. The
extension of the programme builds on the government’s
commitment to achieving the best cancer outcomes in the
world.
Public Health Minister said:
The HPV vaccine for girls is already expected to save
hundreds of lives every year and I am delighted that
we will now be protecting even more people from this
devastating disease by extending the vaccines to
boys.
Any vaccination programme must be firmly grounded in
evidence to ensure that we can get the best outcomes
for patients, but as a father to a son, I understand
the relief that this will bring to parents. We are
committed to leading a world-class vaccination
programme and achieving some of the best cancer
outcomes in the world – I am confident these measures
today will bring us one step further to achieving
this goal.
Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisations at Public Health
England, said:
I’m pleased that adolescent boys will be offered the
HPV vaccine. Almost all women under 25 have had the
HPV vaccine and we’re confident that we will see a
similarly high uptake in boys.
This extended programme offers us the opportunity to
make HPV-related diseases a thing of the past and
build on the success of the girls’ programme, which
has already reduced the prevalence of HPV 16 and 18,
the main cancer-causing types, by over 80%. We can
now be even more confident that we will reduce
cervical and other cancers in both men and women in
the future.
