Should Young Boys be Vaccinated for HPV?
Monday, October 31, 2011
Five years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended all girls and young women be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV) a sexually transmitted virus that is the key cause of cervical cancer.
Late last week the CDC broadened that to include boys and young men as well.
This may come as a surprise, as males, of course, are not able to contract cervical cancer. But they can carry the disease unknowingly and infect women through sexual activity. It's for this reason that an advisory panel of the CDC unanimously recommended the vaccine for boys before age 13 (although the HPV vaccine can be effective up to age 21 in men).
Miriam Hospital's Michelle Lally, MD: a good thing
Michelle Lally, MD, an infectious disease expert and physician at the Miriam Hospital, applauds the move for a number of reasons, both from public and private health perspective.
"Girls cannot get cervical cancer unless they are first infected with an HPV virus," Lally said. And although most HPV clears, she said, it is in fact the main cause of cervical cancer. "Among vaccines, the quadravalent HPV vaccine is one of if not the most effective vaccines available in terms of offering protection against a target virus," she said.
For boys, there are more issues at stake than just responsible sexual health with regards to infecting female partners. ""Heterosexual boys can develop genital warts, penile cancer, and anal cancer from HPV," Lally said, adding that boys who have sex with other boys are at increased risk for anal cancer.
Will it be covered?
Lally said that usually health insurerers follow ACIP recommendations when they cover certain vaccines, meaning that many insurance companies already cover the HPV vaccine for boys, as they do for girls. "But not all," she said. Now, Lally added, with the imperative of the CDC, it is likely that more will cover the vaccine.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTRhode Island's advantage
Lally points out that Rhode Island is one of a few "universal purchase" states in the country, meaning that the state uses state and insurance company money to mass-purchase vaccines from the CDC at a discounted rate. "We then offer all recommended vaccines to all children in the state without an additional cost for the vaccine itself."
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