Doctors say a new vaccine that combats humanpapilloma virus which can cause cervical cancer in women, could also be given to men.
Dr. Bradley Monk, associate professor in gynecologic oncology at the University of California, Irvine, said the HPV vaccine should be given to girls and boys as well as all women and men, regardless of any risk factors, Reuters reported today.
The vaccine, called Gardasil, is produced by Merck & Co. and was licensed last month by the federal Food and Drug Administration for use in women and girls between the ages of 9 and 26.
The drug protects against four different kinds of HPV viruses or the human wart virus.
Monk said in the latest issue of Obstetrics & Oncology that the drug should be a universal vaccine for men and women since men can also pass on the virus to women and because it also offers protection against genital warts.
But some oppose widespread use of the vaccine in children, saying it should be up to parents to decide.
An FDA advisory committee recommended the vaccine to girls ages 11 and 12 and women aged 13 to 26 as well as for women who have had abnormal pap smears, genital warts or some other conditions.
About 80 percent of sexually active women tend to get genital HPV within five years of becoming sexually active, studies show.
Although a woman’s immune system generally kills the virus, those women whose immunity doesn’t protect them from the disease tend to get precancerous lesions in the cervix, vagina, vulva skin and anus as well as other warts. If these cancers are not discovered early on, survival rates for those who have them are about 60 percent, studies show.
