Should boys be vaccinated to prevent the spread of the infection that causes cervical cancer?
Most malehealth readers thought so. In last month’s snap survey on the site, 55% of men and 88% of women said boys should be vaccinated against HPV, the virus that cause the majority of cases of the cancer. The government has already announced that girls aged 12-13 will be vaccinated from September 2008 with a ‘catch-up campaign’ offering the vaccine to females up 18. Most malehealth readers (92% of men and 94% of women) agreed that girls should be vaccinated. Malehealth editor Jim Pollard apologised for a slight oversimplification of the issue in the malehealth online debate. ‘Thanks to those of you who pointed out that we omitted to mention that the HPV virus not only causes 70% of cases of cervical cancer and 95% of cases of genital warts but also most cases of anal cancer,’ he said. ‘Having said that, given that 80% of the UK population will be infected with the HPV virus at some time during their lifetime and yet there are only about 800 diagnoses of anal cancer every year, there
