Don't Neglect Boys In Vaccination Programme, BDHF Warns

Mon, 17 Mar 2008

The British Dental Health Foundation (BDHF) has called on the government to ensure that boys are included in a planned vaccination programme to guard against the sexually transmitted HPV virus .

The move comes in response to a recent large-scale US study of 46,000 mouth cancer cases, which found that the number of deaths caused by the sexually transmitted HPV virus in the country has reached a record high – increasing by a third over the last 30 years.

The Department of Health (DoH) has already agreed to introduce the HPV vaccine for all 12 and 13-year-old girls in the UK from this September in an effort to guard against the future risk of cervical cancer .

BDHF chief executive, Dr Nigel Carter said: "It is admirable that the government is taking such positive steps to reduce the number of cervical cancer cases for the women of the future but, with mouth cancer killing more people than cervical cancer and testicular cancer combined, it is clear that this little-known condition also needs to be addressed."

"By expanding its HPV vaccination programme to include boys as well as girls, the government would be able to address the problem of rising HPV-related mouth cancer deaths in a simple, fair and effective manner," he explained.

"With young people becoming progressively more sexually active this problem is not going to go away…it needs to be addressed and sooner rather than later."

In the UK, mouth cancer claims the life of one person every five hours and affects more men than women . The main risk factor for the condition is the use of tobacco, followed closely by excess alcohol consumption .

"People need to start taking steps to lower their risk of developing the condition; whether that be by cutting out smoking, by reducing their alcohol consumption or by taking a HPV test along with their partner," added Dr Carter.
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