At last, HPV vaccine for boys

24/07/18 . News

Boys aged between 12 and 13 in England will be given a vaccine to protect them against HPV-related cancers.

The government's announcement follows new scientific evidence and advice from its independent panel of experts, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The Forum's CEO Martin Tod has described it as 'a very good decision'. 

The vaccine will not only protect men from HPV-related diseases – such as oral, throat and anal cancer – but also help reduce the overall number of cervical cancers in women, through the process known as ‘herd immunity’.

The programme is expected to vaccinate thousands of boys each year in England, which becomes one of a small number of countries to offer HPV vaccination for both girls and boys. 

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In the UK, one man in five dies before the age of 65. If we had health policies and services that better reflected the needs of the whole population, it might not be like that. But it is. Policies and services and indeed men have been like this for a long time and they don’t change overnight just because we want them to.

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