The Buckingham

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The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending that males between the ages of 11 and 21 should get the HPV vaccine.

Although last October the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said that boys should get the vaccine, only now is the recommendations being formalized.  The recommendations are published in the Feb. 1 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine Report, as well as the Feb. 3 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The committee who decided on this consists of 16 medical societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Physicians.

A recent study has shown that nearly 16 million Americans between 14 and 69 have HPV in their mouths or throat, but luckily most were found not to have the kind that is linked to cancer.  Around 50 percent of sexually active men and women get infected with HPV at some point in their lives, but very few have symptoms.  Some HPV infections can lead to warts and cervical cancer.

Since 2006, the HPV vaccine has been recommended for girls, however only 49 percent of girls have gotten one in the series of three HPV shots.