BDHF Calls For Boys To Included In HPV Vaccine

Mon, 17 Aug 2009

A leading dental health charity is calling for young boys in the UK to be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus (HPV) following new research which suggests the virus is linked to growing rates oral cancers .

The British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF) has joined cancer experts in calling for the HPV vaccine to be given to boys as well as girls after the study by Cancer Research UK found the sexually transmitted HPV is one of the risk factors that has driven a huge increase in mouth cancer cases over the last decade.

The HPV vaccine programme was introduced by the government in a bid to prevent girls from contracting cervical cancer .

But BDHF chief executive Dr Nigel Carter said the new research shows it is now time to extend the programme.

"It is time we took action to prevent this hidden killer, which is beginning to affect more and more young people," he commented.

"Expert studies suggest HPV could become a leading cause of mouth cancer so let us be proactive and plan against this threat."

"The government sensibly rose above controversy to give anti-HPV jabs to young girls to curb cervical cancer ."

"Mouth cancer affects far more people than cervical cancer, so surely it is time to widen the programme to boys."

Professor Margaret Stanley, of Cambridge University, said: "These HPVs don’t just cause cancer in women. They cause it in men as well."

"Cancer in the mouth, cancer in the anus and those cancers are very hard to treat."
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