ALL primary kids ‘should get sex cancer vaccine’
Doctors call for early HPV jab
A JAB to prevent cancers triggered by having sex should be given to primary school children, say doctors.
The British Medical Association believes the HPV (human papilloma virus) vaccine should be given to youngsters under nine in an effort to catch them before they have sex.
Girls aged 11 and 12 currently receive the HPV vaccine to protect against cervical cancer.
The virus is also a leading cause of oral cancers.
The doctors’ trade union has voted for the programme being widened to include “all school age children of both sexes and administered at primary school to be more effective”. Lucy-Jane Davis, chairwoman of the Bristol division and a public health registrar, said: “This is about protecting men and women from a particularly nasty cancer that can kill them.”
Teenage girls have been offered the jab since 2008 and recent reports suggest teenage boys will soon be given the HPV jab. The vaccination is available free on the NHS up until girls’ 18th birthday. It is most effective prior to having had sex.
Dr Davis told the annual BMA meeting in Brighton: “There’s really good evidence that the vaccine works better if you catch people before they’re 16 but what we really need to do is catch them before they have any kind sexual contact “If we can do that in primary school, then we would have universal coverage.” HPV is the name for a group of viruses – spread by intimate contact and kissing – that cause conditions including some cancers. Cases often develop decades after infection. Robert Music, of charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, said: “The vaccine is most effective before puberty when the immune system is at its strongest.”
There’s good evidence the vaccine works better if you catch people before they’re 16 LUCY-JANE DAVIS SPEECH TO BRITISH MEDICAL ASSOCIATION