Australia - No cancer vaccine (HPV) for boys: report

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Maybe they only are trying to injure girls, or make them sterile?

Sheri

http://news.theage.com.au/national/no-cancer-vaccine-for-boys-report-20080917-4i\

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No cancer vaccine for boys: report

September 17, 2008 - 8:24AM

Vaccinating boys with Australia's blockbuster HPV

vaccine does not improve cancer or genital warts

rates enough for either sex to make it

financially worthwhile, a new report suggests.

A mathematical model to be presented at a sexual

health conference in Perth on Wednesday shows

that immunisation rates for the cervical cancer

vaccine, Gardasil, are so high that dosing boys

with the vaccine will give girls very little extra protection from the disease.

It also suggests the benefits for the boys

themselves in reducing genital warts and head,

neck and anal cancers triggered by the human

papillomavirus (HPV) are " questionable " .

" We still don't know whether it even works in

boys like it does in girls - but even if it does

there's a very big question mark around whether

it's cost effective to give it to them, " said Dr

Law, from the National Centre in HIV

Epidemiology and Clinical Research in Sydney.

The federal government has funded a national

vaccination program for females aged 12 to 26 to

block HPV strains 16 and 18, which are

responsible for 70 per cent of cervical cancers,

and strains 6 and 11, which cause 90 per cent of genital warts.

The program is expected to dramatically reduce

rates of both conditions in coming decades, and

reduce rates of other rarer, HPV-related cancers.

Some experts have been calling for the program to

be extended to boys, to give additional

protection for girls and to guard males against the other conditions.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are still testing effectiveness on boys.

" The mathematic modelling suggests that

vaccinating boys in addition doesn't get you a

lot more benefit in terms of preventing

infections in women because such a high number of

girls, over 80 per cent, are getting the vaccine, " Dr Law said.

And while there may be some benefit to

vaccinating boys against those strains, the exact

magnitude of the benefit is still uncertain, he said.

" There's certainly an argument for giving boys

this added protection but whether it's cost

effective is quite uncertain and seriously in doubt at this stage. "

But Dr Darren , president of the

Australasian Chapter of Sexual Health Medicine,

said the benefits of blocking genital warts alone

in males was " huge " as the condition was very

common, painful and embarrassing, as well as expensive and difficult to treat.

" Vaccinating boys will also protect them in terms

of sex with backpackers and travellers coming to

Australia or people they encounter overseas who

have not been vaccinated in their home country, " Dr said.

© 2008

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AAP

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Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

Vaccines - http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers & Homeopathy Online/email courses - next classes Sept 10, 2008