Friday, October 23, 2009

HPV vaccine for males

Approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in boys and men ages 9 to 26 last week, yesterday the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said it would recommend the three-injection, $130 treatment for males. Note the CDC did not "urge" the medical community to do so — something it did with females.

We like the sound of this! Especially because, with an estimated 250,000 annual new cases of genital warts among men, and a prevention success rate of 89 percent, we might finally get some traction in keeping HPV from spreading .

But there are critics. Namely, from inside the vaccine community, who say that while genital warts are a pain, they aren't life threatening, and aren't worth such a costly vaccination.

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