Writing
Since the Ministry of Health approved, in September 2022, the inclusion of the HPV vaccine for adolescent boys In the systematic vaccination schedule, several autonomous communities have established their respective vaccination programs aimed at boys who are in the sixth grade of primary education (12 years old). However, specialists consider it necessary to extend this vaccine to other age ranges to improve global immunity.
“We reiterate the need to generalize and extend vaccination to young boys from the age of 14, young men and adults,” points the Dr. Alvaro Vives, andrologist and expert in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) from the Fundació Puigvert. In fact, HPV vaccination programs in men carried out in other countries have shown a significant impact in reducing HPV infectionas well as anogenital warts.
Dr. Álvaro Vives: “The ideal would be to implement a preventive vaccination program aimed at adolescent and young men. Most of the men we are vaccinating are sexually active adults who already have an infectious pathology”
According to Dr. Vives, these results “They demonstrate the efficacy of vaccination in men at an early age, preferably before initiating sexual intercourse, although there is no age limit for administering it. In fact, and this is a fact that we have to reverse, the majority of men we are vaccinating are sexually active adults who already have an infectious pathology. The ideal would be to implement a preventive vaccination program aimed at adolescent and young men. In Catalonia there is an estimated population of 500,000 men in the 15 to 25 age range”.
The effectiveness of the HPV vaccine is highly effective in men. “Solo this data confirms the need to vaccinate men as well as women, since that this is the only vaccine that has shown protection against the development of certain types of cancer in both sexes”, highlights Dr. Vives. Specifically, HPV is related to certain types of cancer in men: anus, penis and oropharyngeal. The latter withan increasing trend in incidence, so the efficacy of the vaccine would stop this trend while improving global immunity, guaranteeing gender equality and equity in access to health”, assures the specialist.
Specifically, HPV is related to certain types of cancer in men: anus, penis and oropharyngeal
A vaccine without age limit
On the other hand, Dr. Vives clarifies that “there is no age limit for its administration” and adds that “there is a general lack of knowledge about the HPV vaccine in men. The most worrying thing is that there is still the false belief that the vaccine is only for women. In this sense, the specialist considers that “The lack of information is one of the main barriers in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases”. In the case of adolescents, “Their main source of information is social networks, which are full of hoaxes about sexuality,” he concludes.
Recently, the magazine The Lancet Global Health published a study proving that the prevalence of HPV is high in men older than 15 years and supports that sexually active men, regardless of their age, frequently have genital HPV infections. Thus, according to this study, one in three men over the age of 15 is infected with at least one type of genital human papillomavirus (HPV) and one in five is infected with one or more of the so-called HPV types of high risk or oncogenic.
2023-09-04 17:08:56
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