From September 2019, the English Health System (NHS) will expand the population eligible for the preventive Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine to include not only girls, but also all boys in grade 8.
The goal is ambitious: to prevent more than 100,000 cancers across the United Kingdom by 2058.
Papilloma is an infectious disease of viral origin, caused by many different strains of Papilloma virus (HPV).
Oncogenic evidence has been confirmed for 12 types of HPV, of which HPV16 and HPV18 strains are responsible for more than 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer, which is the fourth most common cancer in women, responsible for 266,000 deaths and 528,000 cases in 2012. Other strains are also responsible for a good percentage of cancers of the anus, vagina, penile and oropharynx. Transmission occurs sexually, and is very common in the population (about 60-70% of the world's sexually active population has papilloma).
Extending vaccine protection to boys will create greater protection for the incidence of cervical cancer in women, and because of the overall reduction in virus circulation, it will also prevent cancer of the penis and anus.
Prof. Beate Kampmann, Director of the Vaccine Center at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, called the decision "a triumph for gender equality in cancer prevention." In Australia, which has expanded vaccination universally for years, the HPV rate among women aged 18 to 24 has dropped from 22 percent in 2005, to 1 percent in 2015. This success speaks for itself; we now have the tools to eradicate most HPV-associated cancers for men and women. "
The UK Public Health Minister said "through our world-leading vaccination program, we have already saved millions of lives and prevented countless cases of terrible diseases. Experts predict that we could be on our way to eliminating cervical cancer forever."
