Dr Peter Saxton (r) and colleague Adrian Ludlam Health researchers are ramping up pressure on the country's treatment funders to make a much-needed vaccine against anal and penile cancer and genital warts freely available for gay youth, pointing out that the same vaccine is already funded for the less-common cervical cancer in women. “Gardasil [vaccine] is commonly known as a cervical cancer vaccine for women” says Dr Peter Saxton of Auckland University's Department of Social and Community Health. “But HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer, also causes anal, mouth and throat and penile cancers in men. Gay men’s rates of anal cancer are around 20 times that of the general population, exceeding rates of cervical cancer, yet gay men are excluded from the Government’s free vaccine programme.”“It’s unacceptable to withhold a safe and effective cancer vaccine from the group at greatest risk,” says Saxton. Unfunded, Gardasil costs around $500 for three doses which makes it unaffordable for many young gay and bisexual men, says Saxton. The vaccine is already offered to young girls to preempt infection which can occur as they become sexually active. If sufficient girls take up the vaccine a 'herd immunity' phenomenon kicks in, extending protection to other young women and also their male sexual partners. But gay male youth are outside the loop in this process. “Gay and bisexual men ought to be offered free vaccination directly as a priority population, with a parallel aim of offering vaccination to all boys as well as girls,” Saxton argues. Saxton and colleague Adrian Ludlam have written in the latest issue of NZ Doctor magazine that HPV-related disease could be virtually eliminated by a comprehensive vaccine campaign. They noted that Gardasil will prevent 80-90% of anal cancers in gay men and over 90% of anogenital warts. Although government medication funding body Pharmac has so far declined an extension for gay men, from 1st July 2014 HIV positive people aged under 25 will be able to access it for free. Saxton and Ludlam say a vaccine programme for gay men could start now. Ideally such a programme would ideally be directed at all young men in order to pick up on gay or bi youth who have not yet acknowledged their homosexuality. It would then also provide improved protection to the population as a whole. Last week the pair received Health Research Council funding for a feasibility study into HPV prevalence, in collaboration with the Immunisation Advisory Centre at the University of Auckland.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 3rd June 2014 - 10:19am