Australia launches national scheme to vaccinate boys against HPV

As Australia has begun to vaccinate boys against human papillomavirus, fresh calls have been made for the United Kingdom to follow suit.

The move sees Australia become the first country in the world to publicly fund HPV vaccination of boys in a bid to protect against genital warts and anal, penile, and throat cancers.

Starting this month, boys and girls alike in Australia will receive three doses of the quadrivalent vaccine Gardasil at ages 12-13, as part of a national, federally funded school based programme. A catch-up scheme will also run for 14-15 year old boys until the end of the school year in 2014.

The expansion of the existing programme, which has been vaccinating girls since 2007, is being rolled out across all states and territories throughout February. …