An important vaccination which will help eliminate anal and penile cancers in gay and bi men will now be made available free to young NZ men. After years of pressure from gay men's health researchers and medics Pharmac has today announced Gardasil will be available free for all adults 26-years old and younger from January 1st next year. Until now the vaccine has been primarily used to ward off cervical cancer, caused by the sexually-transmittable human papillomavirus, in women. It was for years considered that if enough women were vaccinated a 'herd immunity' effect would mean the increasing rarity of HPV amongst women would mean men were less likely to contract the virus. However, this has left men who have sex with men, who have a high incidence of HPV, out of the loop and vulnerable to developing oral, anal and penile cancer as a result. The vaccine to be available from January 1st will protect against nine strains of HPV compared to the four strains targeted by the current version.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 28th July 2016 - 10:33pm