Dentists’ views wanted urgently for HPV vaccination survey

Currently, only girls aged 12 to 13, are offered the vaccine.

However, the Government’s vaccination advisory committee (JCVI) looks set to make a decision on whether to recommend extending this to include boys at its next meeting on June 7, 2017.

The committee has already recommended that men who have sex with men – a particularly high-risk group for HPV infection – should be offered the vaccination if and when they attend sexual health clinics.

Now, pressure group, HPV Action – made up of 45 health and related organisations that advocates HPV vaccination for both boys and girls, including the British Dental Association (BDA) – is asking dentists and GPs for their views in an online poll.

HPV Action fights for the UK vaccination programme to offer gender-neutral vaccinations for the human papillomavirus (HPV) that causes 5 per cent of all cancers – oral, cervical, anal, penile, vaginal and vulval.

It also causes anogenital warts and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis, with the total disease burden shared between the sexes about equally.