Panel says boys should get HPV vaccine, too [View All]

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Source: SF Chronicle

(10-25) 12:03 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal advisory panel today recommended that all 11- and 12-year-old boys get a controversial vaccine that prevents a common sexually transmitted disease.

The HPV vaccine, called Gardasil, has been recommended for preteen girls since 2006, but parents have been reluctant to immunize their daughters and as of last year, only about a third of girls nationwide had gotten all three shots required to be fully vaccinated.

But boys tend to be the source of HPV infections in girls, so federal public health authorities hope that by vaccinating them, too, that girls will get additional protection from the STD.

"There's been a disappointing uptake in teenage girls," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a media teleconference this morning. "In addition to a direct benefit for boys, there's also the potential that vaccinating boys will reduce the spread of HPV from males to females."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/25/BA7H1LM4G9.DTL