Recommend HPV vaccine for boys
The Prioritization Council for Health believes boys at the age of 12 should be offered free HPV vaccines, but only if the authorities manage to get the the vaccine at a price that is not too expensive .
Girls vaccination are as a part of the childhood program offered the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which can cause cervical cancer. Now the prioritizing council, which makes recommendations to the Ministry of Health, think that boys should be vaccinated as well.
– Our aim is to provide individual protection against HPV-related cancers also for men who have sex with unvaccinated women and men who have sex with men, reducing the amount of HPV in the population and possibly reducing the incidences of genital warts, according to the resolution.
The Council also writes that there is “it is an essential condition” for offering the vaccine to boys “that an acceptable price for the vaccine is agreed upon.”
HPV can cause cancer of the mouth, throat and anus. However, there is less evidence that the vaccine prevents cancer in men, compared to the evidence that it prevents cervical cancer. The number of occurrence these forms of such in men is also lower than the incidence of cervical cancer in women.Public Health will be responsible for negotiating the cost of vaccines offered in the childhood immunization with pharmaceutical manufacturers. But it is up to the Ministry of Health to determine whether it will set aside money to provide the vaccine to boys.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
