GAYSTARNEWS
Tris Reid-Smith
Original Article: bit.ly/1xkBic2
A decision to start a vaccination program to stop gay and bi men getting anal cancer has been delayed by UK health officials.
The reason? Because it may not be ‘cost effective’.
All girls aged 12 to 13 already get the vaccines which stop them getting the human papillomavirus (HPV) and developing genital warts and cervical cancer.
The idea was to extend that to all boys of the same age. But that decision has been put off until 2017.
In the mean time, the UK Committee on Vaccination and Immunization was expected to at least approve giving the life-saving jabs to men who have sex with men.
Clinicians say the rates of HPV and the cancers it causes in gay and bi men are the same as the rates in women before they started the nationwide vaccination program.
That, campaigners argue, makes this a clear gay health inequality.
Full text of article available at link below: bit.ly/1xkBic2
