Gay Men In The UK Asking For HPV Vaccine

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Main Category: Cervical Cancer / HPV Vaccine
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;  Pediatrics / Children's Health;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 23 Feb 2007 - 10:00 PST

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Gay men in the UK are asking private doctors to vaccinate them against HPV, the Human Papillomavirus that is known to cause cervical cancer and has also been linked to other cancers.

The HPV vaccine, of which the only one currently approved in the US and Europe is Gardasil (made by Merck) has been shown in clinical trials to prevent 70 per cent of the HPVs that are known to cause cervical cancer.

Gardasil is licensed in the UK for use with boys and girls aged 9 to 15, and women between 16 and 26. However, doctors have the right to offer it to patients not covered by the licence, as they do with any medication.

Gay men say they want the vaccine because HPVs are known to be linked with other cancers too, like anal and penile cancer. Private doctors have already been giving their gay patients Gardasil if they ask for it. It costs about 400 - 450 pounds for three shots.

Some experts say that it is too early to say whether giving men the vaccine will do any good, because there have not been any clinical studies of the size and robustness of the cervical cancer ones. Merck is currently doing trials of Gardasil on men, including men who have sex with men, but it has not reached any conclusions yet.

The vaccine only stops you getting certain HPVs if you have it before you are exposed to HPVs through being sexually active. If you already have the full range of HPVs that are linked with cancer, then there is no point in having the vaccine, say many of the experts.

The doctors who are vaccinating gay men are swabbing them first to find out if they already have HPVs and if so which ones.

US health experts and epidemiologists say that if women were to be vaccinated before becoming sexually active, this would significantly reduce the deaths by cervical cancer, which currently kills about 4,000 American women every year.

HPVs have been linked with other cancers such as cancers of the anus, vulva, vagina, penis and the oropharynx (the area at the back of the mouth that includes the back of the tongue, soft palate and tonsils).

This surge in demand for Gardasil by gay men follows in the wake of the US Food and Drug Administration's recommendation that all American schoolgirls should be immunised against HPV.

A significant campaign has been waged in the US, lobbying federal and state governments to pass laws making it compulsory that all girls aged 11 to 12 to be vaccinated. Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, has issued an executive order for schoolgirls to be vaccinated, bypassing the normal legal system by which state laws are made.

There has been a backlash by some American parents and conservative groups who say that this action interferes with parents' rights to decide when their daughters should be exposed to issues of a sexual matter, and that this will encourage promiscuity.

In the UK, the government is considering whether to make vaccination compulsory for 11 and 12 year old girls, and maybe boys as well. Most UK mothers want their daughters to be immunised, according to a survey last month by Cancer Research UK.

Each year in the UK nearly 2,800 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer which also kills almost 1,100 UK women annually. Cervical cancers cases represent 1 per cent of all cancer cases in the UK.

Anal cancer and penile cancer are relatively rare in the UK with about 400 cases of each occuring every year (0.2 per cent of all cancer cases). Anal cancer is more common in women than in men.

HPV, the Human Papillomavirus is a group of about 100 different viruses that cause warts and lesions, of which about 30 are sexually transmitted. Sometimes a person can be infected without showing symptoms.

HPVs are classed as high risk and low risk. The high risk ones are linked with cancer. For instance in the case of cervical cancer there are four: HPV-16, 18, 30 and 33. Gardasil has been proven to prevent HPV-16 and 18 as well as some HPVs that are not high risk.

Click here for Human Papillomaviruses and Cancer: Questions and Answers (US National Cancer Institute).

Click here for Cancer Research UK.

Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today


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