Boys to get life-saving injections in victory for our HPV campaign

HUNDREDS of thousands of teenage boys are to be given a lifesaving vaccine – currently administered only to girls – to protect them against deadly cancers.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will give the go- ahead for them to be inoculated against the cancercausing human papillomavirus ( HPV), after a hard- hitting sixmonth campaign by The Mail on Sunday.

The dramatic move comes after experts revealed in this newspaper how HPV kills far more men than previously thought. Since 2008 the vaccine against the sexually transmitted virus has been given to teenage girls on the NHS – but, controversially, not to boys.

Girls have been prioritised because HPV causes cervical cancer, which kills about 1,000 women a year. Around 500 women die from other HPV-related cancers a year too. But it is now known to cause some 2,000 male cancers annually, resulting in the deaths of about 650 men a year, mainly from mouth and throat forms of the disease.

Extending the programme will directly protect some 400,000 teenage boys a year from harbouring the virus for life. This will prevent thousands of cancers, say leading doctors. Last night, former throat cancer patient Jamie Rae said: ‘This will save a lot of lives and a huge amount of suffering in the future.’

Mr Rae, who founded the Throat Cancer Foundation, which has been pressing for HPV vaccination for boys, added: ‘As someone who still lives with the aftermath of an HPV cancer, I can only express relief.’

The Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) had previously concluded it was ‘overwhelmingly’ unlikely that vaccinating boys would be costeffective. Its conclusions were based in part on a flawed computer model that wrongly assumed HPV caused relatively few cancers in men. It also reasoned the vast majority of young men would be protected as a result of vaccinating girls.

But earlier this month the committee accepted new evidence that HPV causes many more cancers in men than previously thought.

In particular it causes up to five times as many mouth and throat cancers as had been estimated. At a meeting on June 6, the JCVI subsequently switched its advice to conclude that vaccinating boys may well be cost- effective, this newspaper has learned.

The advice is not due to be made public until mid-July, although it has been passed to Ministers.

However, Health Department sources last night said that as soon as the advice is published, Mr Hunt will announce the extension of vaccination to Year 8 boys – those aged 12 or 13. The move is likely to cost about £ 22 million a year but the NHS should eventually save money as it will need to treat far fewer men for HPV cancers. In the short term, it will also save it from not having to treat as many cases of genital warts, which the jab also protects against.

One Government source said: ‘ The Mail on Sunday has made a huge contribution by raising awareness of t he devastation caused by HPV, and how easily it can be prevented.

‘In the long term, this will save not only lives, but money. As you have shown, treating HPV cancers is both expensive a nd e xt r e mely damaging.’

Currently t he only way to get boys vaccinated is to go private, costing about £300 for a course. Experts l ast night welcomed the move. Professor Margaret Stanley, president of the International Papillomavirus Society, said: ‘This decision will virtually eliminate anal cancer and oral HPV cancer. It’s a massive step forward, and The Mail on Sunday has helped enormously.’

Prof Chris Nutting, consultant oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, who specialises in treating throat cancer, said it was ‘truly something to celebrate’.

And Peter Baker, director of campaign group HPV Action, said: ‘The decision to vaccinate boys is long overdue but still very welcome.’

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care last night stressed there had been no official announcement. She said: ‘The Government takes advice from an independent expert committee – the JCVI – when making decisions on vaccination programmes. We will carefully consider its advice on HPV once received.’