promoting health for AYA males

HPV News Update


September 17, 2014
 
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Particularly in the US, HPV vaccination rates for both girls and boys remain stubbornly low. In 2013, the US rates of the full three-dose vaccine regimen were only 13.9% for boys and 37.6% for girls. In contrast, due in large measure to that country's National HPV Vaccination Program, the 2012 full three-dose vaccination rate for Australian girls was 70.9%. Because the program just began including boys in 2013 rates for them are not yet available.

As reported in the New York Times at the time, in 2013 the British Medical Journal published an article finding that in Australia the diagnoses of genital warts among young women ages 12 to 26 plummeted 59 percent in the two years after the program for girls began in 2007. For men in the same age group, genital warts cases dropped 39 percent. During the same period, there was also a striking decline in the rate of high-grade cervical abnormalities in teenage girls, a sign that a decline in cervical cancer cases "may be on the horizon."

One of the objectives of the Partnership's Health Provider Toolkit and associated projects is to increase HPV vaccination rates for US males beginning at age 11, which is the initiation age recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

To spark increased dialogue on this important issue the Partnership will initiate a periodic HPV News Update when developments merit it. This is the first in that series.

CBS News - September 17, 2014 
Compared with cervical samples, the HPV urine test correctly identified positive results 87 percent of the time. The urine tests correctly identified negative results 94 percent of the time. When it came to the high-risk strains of the virus -- HPV 16 and 18 -- the urine test correctly identified positive results 73 percent of the time and negative results 98 percent of the time.

Health Canal.com - September 17, 2014

The team discovered that physicians recommended HPV vaccination to less than 15 percent of their male patients aged 9 to 26 years.  Pediatric specialists and doctors who support new vaccines were more likely to recommend the vaccine.

They also found that physician HPV vaccine recommendations may also depend on insurance coverage.  Many insurance companies choose not to cover vaccines when they are considered "optional" or "not required."

 

Medscape Multispecialty - September 10, 2014

HPV Vaccine - It's About Cancer Prevention, Not Sex (Opinion)

I believe the primary reason we are not very good about giving this vaccine is that we feel compelled to talk about the nature in which it is transmitted; we feel compelled to have the sex talk at the time we give the first dose of HPV vaccine. 

 

New York Times - September 10, 2014

HPV Program In Australia Shows Success

The study, published in the September issue of PLOS One, found that the rate of genital warts in young Australian women decreased by 61 percent, while rates in age and sex groups not covered by the program were unchanged.


 CBC News - September 5, 2014 (Canada)

HPV Vaccine: Why boys are less likely to get it


 New York Times - August 29, 2014

The Discomfort Over HPV Vaccine (Letters)

 

io9.com - August 27, 2014

Americans Clearly Don't Understand How Deadly HPV Is 

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease in America. With the exception of HIV, it is also the most fatal. But for almost a decade, we've had a vaccine that prevents HPV infection and, by extension, the deadly cancers it causes. So why aren't American adolescents getting access to this vaccine? 

 

Washington Post - August 21, 2014

The cure for cancer that parents won't use

Most people who get HPV have a transient infection that their immune system clears with no lasting damage. But in some people, the virus takes up residence and goes on to cause cancer. I am grateful that, thanks to the HPV vaccine, I will never have to find out if my sons fell into that second, unlucky group. 

 

 

 

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The Partnership for Male Youth has emerged from the health related work of The Boys Initiative, a young nonprofit organization. In late 2012 the Initiative began researching the state of health care for adolescent and young adult (AYA) males, with an eye toward developing solutions to improve their health.  After an extensive literature search and discussions with over 100 individuals from a range of medical disciplines, and under the guidance of a multidisciplinary medical advisory board, the Initiative developed a groundbreaking resource for health care providers that the Partnership released in January 2014: the Health Provider Toolkit for Adolescent and Young Adult Males.   
Dennis J. Barbour, Esq.
Executive Director
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