Pediatricians recommend HPV vaccine for boys
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It's no longer enough to vaccinate pre-teen and adolescent girls against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer later in life. A new recommendation presented today by the American Academy of Pediatrics says that boys in the same age range should be immunized as well, to protect them from HPV-linked cancers resulting from oral and anal sex and to prevent them passing the virus on to girls.
The academy included the HPV vaccine for boys as part of its revised standard immunization schedule for children and teens. Its inclusion follows a recommendation made in October by the Advisory Committee on Immunization of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The vaccine is expensive, running about $360 for three doses over a six-month period that would provide full protection. The cost for girls is covered by many private insurance policies because it is part of the routine schedule. Adding boys to the list makes coverage more likely for them as well. Highmark, for example, already covers the vaccine for girls as part of its preventive benefits package. Boys may be covered in certain policies already, but they will be part of the preventive benefits package in 2013, said Phil Majewski, medical director of quality at Highmark.
HPV immunization has been controversial in some quarters because the diseases it prevents stem from sexual activity: 15,000 preventable cases among women a year, according to the CDC, including cervical, anal, vaginal, vulvar and throat; and 7,000 among men, mostly oral. HPV also causes genital warts, which appear in 1 percent of sexually active adults in the U.S. at any given time, the CDC reported.
Some critics have charged that the shots promote promiscuity. But a CDC study on that topic showed no such effect, said Michael Brady, chairman of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics and chairman of pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
Nor does the vaccine cause mental retardation, a specious claim made by Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann during her recent presidential bid.
The recommendation for boys as young as 9 could raise hackles since the targeted male cancers -- throat and anal -- are related to homosexual sex. But, Dr. Brady said, "Given the amount of cancer in both genders, most people recognize the rationale. Adding males from a cost-effective perspective was the right thing to do."
First Published February 1, 2012 12:00 am
