DUBAI // Boys should be offered the human papillomavirus vaccination to protect girls from one of the most common, yet preventable types of cancer.
The vaccine against HPV – which causes most cases of cervical cancer – is offered to pupils aged from 15 to 17 at government and private schools in Abu Dhabi.
Calls have been made to extend the scheme to other emirates.
But Dr Wasif Alam said offering HPV vaccinations to all adolescent males, who were more likely to have had more than one sexual partner, could prevent the spread of infection.
Dr Wasif Alam, director of public health at the Dubai Health Authority, said: “HPV is a high risk for those who have had multiple sexual partners.”
“The vaccine is very safe and could be given to boys as well as girls.”
But girls should be the priority, he said. “The cancer happens in the woman, not the man.”
Vaccinating boys and girls doubles the cost, Dr Alam said, and vaccination programmes were already expensive.
“The vaccine is very expensive. It will reduce infection but all best screening methods are the most cost-effective.”
Vaccination programmes have been introduced in many developed countries but few have also extended the vaccine to boys. Australia is one exception.
Dr Osman Ortashi, a consultant in gynaecology, agreed boys should be part of the HPV vaccination programme.
“It is good to vaccinate boys,” Dr Ortashi said.
“First we have to make sure we have an efficient programme vaccinating girls and then boys can be considered for the HPV vaccine.”
There are more than 100 different types of HPV.
jbell@thenational.ae
