Go Australia! High-five!
HPV is often considered a “(cis) woman’s disease” because it causes cervical cancer. However, HPV infection is also linked to penile cancer and anal cancer, both of which men are more prone to. Not only that, but most women who get HPV get it from their male partners– it’s silly to try to eradicate a disease by only vaccinating half the potential carriers. Gardasil is a remarkably safe and effective vaccine which has already greatly reduced the rate of HPV lesions in the female population, and there is no reason for men not to get it.
Yay for Australia! May you be the first of many.
About ozyfrantz
Finally, a reason to be proud of my country and it’s traditionally lackluster health initiatives (even if it is only because Australian researchers developed it).
There are 900 cases of anal cancer and 800 cases of penile cancer a year in the United States. While the rate may be different in Australia, the number of cases is not likely higher. It makes little sense to vaccinate all males for something that will affect less than 0.001% of them. So let us not pretend the vaccination has anything to do with protecting boys and men from cancer.
You left out the part where 1% of sexually active men develop genital warts resulting from HPV (this already puts HPV prevalence in the millions), the fact that men usually don’t show symptoms when they catch HPV, and men who catch HPV and don’t show symptoms can still spread it without realizing it.
http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/hpv/
We’ve all got mouths, though.
Yes we all have Gobs!
But sorry – the link you provided was not informative. It did point to HPV 16 – that is a subset of HPV in total, that can (Please Note Conditional) be linked to Oral Cancer.
Does that mean if I get a blow job I have a 100% risk of penis cancer? Or is that number 1 to 15?
Sorry to ask an indelicate question, but I do have both a gob and a dick, and I enjoy both – in various combinations! P^) What is the risk the risk and how it is assessed?
Sorry, I was on my lunch break and didn’t have time to put together anything pretty.
http://www.cdc.gov/std/hpv/STDFact-HPV-and-men.htm
According to this link there are about 400 cases of penile cancer, 1,500 cases of anal cancer, and 5,600 cases of oropharyngeal cancers per year (though the number of oropharyngeal cancers also includes cancers linked to tobacco).
The National Cancer Institute’s page on HPV is more disturbing. (http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/HPV) HPV now causes more cases of oropharyngeal cancer than smoking, and by 2020 HPV is projected to cause more cases of oropharyngeal cancer than cervical.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website here (http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/hpv/statistics/headneck.htm), (cis) men contract oropharyngeal cancers at roughly four times the rate of (cis) women.
5,600 cases may not seem like a big deal, but if cervical cancer is important enough to vaccinate for, and oropharyngeal cancer numbers are catching up, then it follows that it’s important to vaccinate for the latter as well.
In addition to Tobias’ info about oral and anal cancer, what exactly is wrong with boys getting a vaccine to improve herd immunity against a disease that leads to enormous public health costs and health risks for ALL of us? Saying that “this is not about protecting men and boys” is a rather extreme example of zero-sum, gender war thinking, in my opinion.
The more people who are vaccinated, the less likely each of us is to have a friend, relative, partner, child, etc. exposed to an STD that’s at least mildly unpleasant (genital warts) and at most life-threatening. It makes no sense to only vaccinate women, when we could slow the spread of HPV much more effectively by vaccinating everyone.
But the HPV vaccine prevents men from being carriers. As a biology major in college, I’ve heard of many men who wanted HPV vaccines but couldn’t get it – or rather, the government wouldn’t pay for it like they would with women – which is sexist. Seriously, when else does the government deny those who want to volunteer with herd immunity? Mass vaccinations are also among the cheapest medical interventions there is, and it’s only getting cheaper, with improving technology streamlining the production of recombinant epitopes and viral loads getting lesser and lesser. (The MMR vaccine today uses a fraction of the viral load used a generation ago.)
Ozy, I want to thank you again for bringing attention to the issue of men and HPV. While there are several barriers for us in getting vaccinated (price, accessibility, resistance from healthcare workers), ignorance is both the most serious and the most easily combatted.
“HPV is often considered a “(cis) woman’s disease” because it causes cervical cancer.”
This upsets the ever loving hell out of me. I blame communists personally.
Hi I am a 16 year old girl and have missed out on my HPV vaccinations. I live in Australia. Does this mean I can still get them for free from my local GP?