Raising awareness of HPV and vaccination for boys.

Although I now work for the Throat Cancer Foundation, I am writing this firstly as a parent, who would do anything to protect their child from accidents or diseases by any means possible.

In the UK since 2008, the government routinely offers to young girls aged from 12 a vaccination programme to protect them against the human papilloma virus (HPV), a virus which could go on to develop in some cases into cervical cancer, if that protection was not in place.

Boys however are not given that same opportunity of protection, but who sadly face as many risks of developing a variety of different cancers, which includes along with throat cancer, penile, anal and mouth cancer, from HPV.

The government's current position is that it is cheaper to treat those who develop cancer in males adulthood than it does to introduce a vaccination programme whilst teenagers to protect them against the future risk of developing cancer. This is we believe cold comfort if you of course go on to develop a cancer or even if you have to watch and support a loved one dealing with a horrendous cancer diagnosis.

We are making great strides to eradicate cancer in the UK, but lets not mince our words here, people still do die or at the very least suffer long term health conditions from the lasting effects of cancer and or its treatments.

HPV is a very common virus which most of us will get at some point in our lives, but the stage where it becomes a cancer can be 20 or 30 years later after infection. There is no way of know where you get HPV from, nor are there any symptoms, but what we do know is that is that all this can be prevented by a simple vaccination. That's why we (the organisation I work for, the Throat Cancer Foundation) is considering taking the government to court to try to force them to have a judicial review to try to get them to reverse their position of not vaccinating boys due to cost. 

We believe, and me more so as a dad to a teenage boy, believe the government is wrong and must be forced into giving boys the opportunity to be protected against the risk of different types of cancer as much as girls. They have that right too.

I don't want to risk seeing my child grow up to develop cancer for the sake of a simple vaccination. I don't want to see his family and friends to have to deal with supporting them when we know that conditions throat cancer can be potentially eradicated for all.

Thank you for reading.

Kind regards

Gordon

  • Hi Gordon.i have just read your post with great interest,and couldn't agree more.i am a 5year survivor of advanced throat cancer,more than likely caused by HPV,and find it astonishing,if not immoral,that the government are not vaccinating boys.i was already aware of this and have urged my son to pay for my 6 year old grandson to be vaccinated once he is old enough.like you mention,not many people are aware of HPV unfortunately,and even if they were aware,many parents would not pay for the vaccination,either because they just dismiss it or simply cannot afford it.i have to admit that both my son and his wife were quite dismissive about it at first but hopefully they will will have listened to me,and if I am still around in a few years I shall make sure my precious grandson is vaccinated.

    kind regards

    karen

  • Karen,

    Thank you for replying.  I am so glad you are a survivor.  I am sure you will be around for many years.  I don't if you watch the The Stuff on Channel 5...I must confess I don't normally, but however on Tuesday the 13 of March the episode had a a discussion about vaccinating boys. It focus on the fact that the government is not vaccinating boys due to cost.   If you can I would encourage you to watch it in their catch up service.  It's only the last 15 minutes of the programme...but well worth a watch.

    We as an organisation have made this a priority to bring the government to account and change their policy on this matter and get boys vaccinated too....so so important.

    It's well documented that HPV related cancers in girls have fallen, but those HPV related cancers in boys have risen...we have done well with girls, we owe it too our boys.

    My boss, of the TCF is a throat cancer survivor too, and I know what he went through and I'm sure you went through too.  Not good!

    Thank you again for your replay.

    Kind regards,

    Gordon 

  • Hi Gordon

    Just to let you know great website and great cause and have spoken to Jamie at TCF to help support the cause

    keep up the good work

    vatch

  • Vatch,

    Thank you so much...really appreciate that.  Jamie is a great guy.

    Kind regards

    Gordon

  • Thanks Gordon.i didn't see the programme but I will make sure I watch it.hopefully the more awareness and campaigning there is by good folk like yourselves at the TCF,then maybe vaccinations for boys will be carried out also.it actually seems to me that by not vaccinating boys that they are being discriminated against and I thought we had strict laws about discrimination in this country.keep up the good work guys.

    regards

    karen

  • Luckily my daughter missed out on the HPV vaccine  and I was relieved that it is not available for boys.
    Some girls have in fact been left severely disabled by this vaccine and there have been deaths reported.
    We don't know what causes  cancers so speculating that a vaccine will prevent it is pie in the sky.
    Perhaps one or all of the childhood vaccines pushed on us are responsible for underminding our natural immune system making us more susceptible to developing cancer

  • Tams,

    I am sorry but there has been no proper scientific research to prove that a vaccine killed or diasabled anyone.

    There have been tenuous connections between the vaccination in the press against HPV to prevent cervical cancer and the unexpected death of a teen or young adult, and these are always very sad and very tragic, and as a dad myself I feel incredible empathy for the parents,as anyone would. However, none of these stories (not science, but stories) that say a vaccine kills or disables young people without good scientifc evidence this is a dangerous stance.

    There may have been a few reactions to vaccines for different reasons, allergic or some other type.

    This is the WHO opening statement on the safety (the rates) of Gardasil (an HPV vaccine), carried out in June 2017....with a link to whole artice.

    "...Since licensure in 2006, over 270 million doses of HPV vaccines have been distributed. GACVS first reviewed the safety data in 2007,12 and subsequently in 2008,13 2009,14 2013,15 2014,16 and 2015.17 Early on, the Committee was presented signals related to anaphylaxis and syncope. The risk of anaphylaxis has been characterized as approximately 1.7 cases per million doses, and syncope was established as a common anxiety or stress-related reaction to the injection. No other adverse reactions have been identified and GACVS considers HPV vaccines to be extremely safe..."

    www.who.int/.../

     

     

     

  • There will never be any scientific evidence or proof that vaccines can cause damage.  The vaccine industry is far too powerful to allow this.
    There was no evidence that tobacco causes cancer and was once recommended as a cure for asthma;  thalidomide was considered to be safe;  they used to rip out tonsils of young children back in the 1950's and 60's to protect them from infection and later realised that tonsils are our first line of defence.  History is littered with evidence of medical experiments carried out in good faith but found to be injurious in the long term.
    The trouble is that nobody knows what causes cancer: just because the evidence has been hidden does not mean that vaccines are innocent.  They are an assault on our natural immune systems as are most medical interventions over the last 150 years or so.