The potentially life-saving cervical cancer vaccine should be given to boys as well as girls, a leading expert said last night.
The jab has routinely been given to 12 and 13-year-old girls since 2008 and protects against the human papilloma virus, the bug behind most cases of cervical cancer.
But with HPV also blamed for many other tumours, Cambridge University’s Professor Margaret Stanley said boys must be given it too.
The HPV jab has routinely been given to 12 and 13-year-old girls since 2008. Now an expert says it should be given to boys
To not protect them against a host of cancers, including tumours of the tongue, tonsils, head and neck, would be unethical, unfair and socially irresponsible.
World Health Organisation figures link HPV to more than 5 per cent of cancers worldwide.
Professor Stanley said: ‘Obviously cervical cancer is the big one but in Europe and the United States and Australia, places that have got cervical cancer screening programmes, cervical cancer is very well controlled.
