(Image Source: Futurity.org)

 
 
BY MILA MIMICA
 
ANCHOR GARY COTTON
 
Five years after recommending all girls receive a vaccine against Human Papillomavirus, an advisory committee of the CDC recommended boys get their shots as well. ABC News explains.

“It can cause neck and throat cancer in boys and so when the vaccine was initially approved, the information wasn’t there so there wasn’t enough to say what the benefits to boys.”

Fox News says many parents have been hesitant to immunize their children against the sexually transmitted disease, but according to Dr. Joseph Bocchini of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the best time to immunize someone is before they become sexually active.

“The best benefit of this vaccine is going to be giving it prior to the onset of sexual activity. Parents, physicians, all underestimate the likelihood that an adolescent is going to become sexually active.”

According to CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen, the vaccine is only a recommendation and not mandatory.

“The CDC tells states ‘hey we think that kids should be getting x, y, and z shots.’  It’s then up to the states to decide whether or not to require those shots for the child to go to school, and Elina, most states have not required Gardasil for girls, only Virginia and the District of Columbia have said to girls, ‘you’ve gotta get this shot or you’re not allowed at school.’”

But The New York Times looks at the financials and says expanding the vaccine to boys has a hefty price tag - more than $100 per dose.

Vaccinating the nation’s 11- and 12-year-old boys will cost almost $140 million annually, but the one-time catch-up among males 13 to 21 will cost hundreds of millions more. The government generally pays for about half of all vaccinations.”

According to My Health News Daily, the vaccine has been licensed for boys aged 9-26, but only one percent of males have received it.

Sci/Health News

HPV Vaccine Recommended for Boys

October 26, 2011
(1:48)
On Tuesday, a federal advisory committee recommended that boys start to be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus.
   
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