Why Do Only Girls Get the HPV Vaccine?

Article here. Excerpt:

'Ontario just announced that, starting in September, boys in the province will get the HPV vaccine, a cancer-fighting shot that’s been publicly funded and available to girls in the province since 2007. Across Canada, girls have been getting HPV shots for years, but in most places, boys still aren’t vaccinated. In fact, just three provinces include boys in their school-based programs: Alberta, PEI, and Nova Scotia. Manitoba and Quebec are going to start vaccinating boys soon, too.

But even then, there will be four provinces, and two territories, where only girls get a publicly funded HPV shot. In those places, most boys won’t get vaccinated. The human papillomavirus is the most common sexually transmitted infection in Canada, and around the world. So why is it still seen as a female problem?

In a new article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, published April 25, experts argue that it’s time to systematically vaccinate all boys in Canada against HPV, just like girls. It’s time to stop thinking of HPV as a female virus, and on depending on females getting immunized to protect the whole population.

Pretty much everyone who has sex will get an HPV infection at some point in their lives, according to the US Centers for Disease Control, and most infections will clear on their own. But the virus is still worth protecting against. It’s associated with anogenital warts, cancers of the penis, anus, oral cavity, vulva, vagina, and oropharynx. According to the CMAJ paper, men are now reporting more HPV-associated cancers, like anal and oral ones. It says, “some argue that the risk of HPV-related cancer is similar in both sexes.”'