"Boys Should Get HPV Vaccine Too, Panel Says"
A government panel wants young boys as well as girls to get the controversial human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine, in part to prevent them from spreading the sexually transmitted virus to girls. The HPV vaccine has been recommended for young girls to protect them against cervical cancer and genital warts for the last five years. But the vaccine has been slow to catch on - only about a third of adolescent girls have gotten all three shots. Experts say the HPV vaccine could protect boys against genital warts and some kinds of cancers. But they also say vaccinating 11- and 12-year old boys could help prevent them from spreading the human papilloma virus to girls. “These vaccines are very important,” said Dr. Eric Genden from The Mount Sinai Medical Center. “They are as important as polio, rubella and mumps and all the other vaccines that young kids receive.”
- Dr. Eric Genden, Professor & Chair, Otolaryngology, Chief, Head and Neck Oncology, The Mount Sinai Medical Center
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