The anti-cancer HPV vaccination campaign should be extended to young gay men, experts say today.
The vaccine is offered to girls in their early teens with the aim of preventing the development of cervical cancer.
Health experts have argued this will also protect men from a range of cancers linked to the human papillomavirus.
But British experts today say this does not protect gay men – who face extra risk from the virus.
Writing in the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections, the experts say gay men are 15 times as likely as straight men to develop cancers from infection with the virus.
Dr Mark Lawton, of the Liverpool Centre for Sexual Health at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, UK, writes: "The argument for targeted vaccination is strong. Sexual health clinics would be ideally placed to offer it, particularly as they already offer hepatitis B vaccination."
They add: "In the absence of universal vaccination of boys, the argument for introducing targeted HPV vaccination for men who have sex with men up to age 26 years is strong."
Sexually Transmitted Infections 16 July 2013 [abstract]
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