Lifesaving jab denied to millions of boys in Britain could slash the risk of prostate cancer

Baroness Ros Altmann says British boys should be protected from HPV with vaccines just like girls are

I congratulate the Prime Minister for announcing a £75 million programme for earlier detection of prostate cancer. 

Detection rates for male cancers have lagged behind those for female-related breast or cervical cancers, where screening programmes have made huge strides.

Finding cancer earlier is important, but the most effective progress is to prevent cancers occurring in the first place. 

Prostate cancer’s cause is not yet known, but every year, thousands of men develop cancer in the head, neck, tongue, throat, mouth or penis as a result of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection.

If they had been immunised against HPV, their cancers could have been prevented. 

That’s why I believe The Mail on Sunday’s brilliant campaign calling for the NHS to immunise all boys against HPV is so essential. And I hope the Prime Minister will now give it her full backing.

For the past decade, the NHS has inoculated all teenage girls against HPV – but not boys. 

Originally, HPV was considered a danger only to women, as it can cause cervical cancer, but recent research shows it causes cancers affecting men too. 

Other countries including Australia, Canada, Austria and the US therefore now routinely vaccinate boys.

So far, the Health Secretary’s advisers have not recommended vaccinating boys, suggesting it is best value for the NHS to just immunise girls, as this means the boys are automatically protected. 

They claim, if girls do not get HPV, then sexual activity does not put boys at risk. This is clearly nonsense. Many young men will be exposed to HPV even if all British girls are vaccinated. 

In partial recognition of this, the NHS announced it will offer HPV vaccination to gay men, but this logic, too, is manifestly flawed. 

Those who go abroad and have sex will not be protected by a British vaccination programme.

It is only by vaccinating boys directly, before they start sexual activity, that one can be sure they are protected and the cost of about £20 million a year will save huge sums for the NHS in future, as well as saving many British men from the distress of an HPV-related cancer.

It seems impossible to justify spending £75 million to detect prostate cancers whose cause is not yet known, while refusing to pay far less to directly protect boys against other cancers that are entirely preventable.

Here we have an effective treatment which could be offered to all our children to help them avoid cancer. The Government must act without further delay.

Professor Harald zur Hausen, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering that HPV causes cancer, and health organisations including the Royal Society for Public Health, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the British Dental Association are all backing this campaign. 

Please write to your MP to ask them to support too. Any parents or grandparents would be concerned to know their sons and grandsons are being neglected in this way. 

Taking responsibility for them when they are boys is up to us. Not doing so would be a national disgrace.