The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended that boys ages 11 and 12 should be vaccinated against human papillomavirus, or HPV, to protect them against certain cancers. It also recommended vaccination of males ages 13 through 21 who had not already had all three shots. Vaccinations may be given to boys as young as 9 and to men between the ages of 22 and 26.
The committee recommended in 2006 that girls and young women ages 11 to 26 should be vaccinated.
Dr. Keith English, Pediatrician in Chief for Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and Interim Chair for The University of Tennessee Department of Pediatrics, gave our readers his thoughts on this recent recommendation. Dr. English is also the head of Infectious Disease programs at Le Bonheur.
“I strongly support routine immunization of both males and females with the quadrivalent HPV vaccine as the most effective strategy to prevent HPV infections, to reduce transmission of HPV to women and men, to promote widespread herd protection and to prevent HPV-associated diseases in both women and men.”