HPV DOESN’T DISCRIMINATE

Not only has sexual activity been declining among teenagers in British Columbia, it’s now lower than the national average.

Three-quarters of the youth in the province have never had full sex, the McCreary Centre Society reports after crunching numbers from the fifth B.C. Adolescent Health Survey of 30,000 public school students. It says those who do have sex wait longer to begin and young people give thoughtful reasons for their decisions, which range from the belief that they are not ready for such activity to wanting to wait for the right person.

Of those young people who are sexually active, 70 per cent practise safe sex by using condoms and most are active only with one partner. Numbers for the youngest age categories are reassuring. Only four per cent of youth under the age of 15 have ever had sexual intercourse, a 50 per cent decline from the number reported in the 2008 survey.

However, the unvarnished fact remains — of 420,000 young British Columbians aged 12 to 19, about 130,000 have probably been sexually active, mostly at ages approaching independent adulthood. This provides a context supporting those who advocate making the human papilloma virus vaccine available to all youth in the province without charge and regardless of gender.

A recent Australian study of the worldwide impact of vaccination found dramatic reductions in the sexual transmission of HPV-related diseases such as cervical cancer, which are a significant source of female mortality. Cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent female cancer and causes about 7.5 per cent of all cancer deaths among women.

But subsequent research shows HPV is not gender specific. It’s associated with up to 35 per cent of oral and throat cancers, half of penile cancers and up to 90 per cent of anal cancers. Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization now calls for everyone aged nine to 26 to be vaccinated regardless of gender.

But in B.C., the vaccine is still freely available only to girls. The provincial health ministry argues the province is already providing the HPV vaccine to men and boys who need it most. That doesn’t wash. The young men and boys who need it most are those who aren’t getting it.

New Westminster students Nelson Roy and his twin brother Elliott have filed a human rights complaint that the policy is discriminatory. Good for them. They are supported by 25 health organizations. Quite rightly. B.C.’s policy is discriminatory. It’s also easily resolved.

The vaccine is available to boys in six other provinces. B.C. should join them and expand its HPV vaccination program to everyone under 26 as advancing health science recommends.