Study: HPV vaccine prevents genital warts in males

Story here. Excerpt:

'ATLANTA — For the first time, an expensive vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer in women has proven successful at preventing a disease in men, according to a new study.

The disease? It's genital warts, a sexually-transmitted problem that is embarrassing and uncomfortable but not life-threatening.

Still, the results are expected to bolster a likely bid by the vaccine's manufacturer _ Merck & Co. Inc. _ to begin marketing the vaccine to boys, experts said. Merck plans to ask the government for that approval later this year.

"This opens the door to a wonderful opportunity to prevent illness," said Anna Giuliano, a Tampa-based researcher who worked on the Merck-funded study. She is an epidemiologist at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.'