HPV Vaccine Prevents Anal Cancer

There is an interesting article in the Lancet medical magazine that talks about how the HPV vaccine is also being used to help gay men avoid anal cancer. With women the HPV vaccine is given routinely to young girls, preferably before they become sexually active. However this strategy may not work with males...

Casting a wide net -- routine vaccination of all men and boys -- may not be the best way to prevent anal cancer and genital warts in this high-risk group, Kim writes. Instead, targeting men who have sex with men between the ages of 12 and 26 may be the way to go, she says.

"Such a strategy is very likely to be a valuable health investment for a high-risk population that otherwise relies on no other organized prevention strategy against an illness with a high disease burden," she writes.

Younger men may not be aware of their sexual identity or willing to disclose it, and this is one of the reasons some experts were calling for routine vaccination of all boys.

You can read more about this here.