Dubai: A vaccine that helps prevent cervical cancer in girls should also be given to boys, a gynaecologist said on Monday.
Dr Britt Clausson, obstetrician and gynaecologist at Mediclinic City hospital, said that data now strongly suggests that the HPV (human papilomavirus) is also associated with cancers of male reproductive organs.
The doctor said the HPV vaccine will provide immunity to both boys and girls. She said cervical cancer is certainly not low here. She said the HPV vaccine is the first ever that protects against a cancer and that in countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and the Scandinavian countries, pre-teen girls are given three doses to protect them and give them immunity.
She was speaking to Gulf News on the sidelines of an event that supports Immunisation Week, that runs until April 30 in Dubai, in the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMRO)
The doctor said globally the HPV cancer is second-most common cancer after breast cancer in women.
The US-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended the HPV vaccine for boys as it helps prevent genital warts and anal cancers.
It said that the common strains of HPV (HPV 16 and 18) cause 21,000 cancers per year in the US, and one a third of these cancers are in males, it said.
Mazen Altaruti, managing director of MSD, a leading pharmaceutical firm, said that some countries in the region are looking at options such as linking the HPV vaccination to premarital tests.
In the UAE, couples wishing to marry are advised to get tests for certain genetic diseases.
Dr Zainab Malik, a paediatrics and infectious disease doctor at Mediclinic City Hospital, advised parents not to rely on non-experts to make decisions for them. She was responding to a question that some parents do not trust vaccines and believe that they do more harm than good.
“There is a lot of misinformation in the media. Listen to trusted sources, not from the internet,” she said.
She said Dubai has introduced the vaccination against Rotavirus in the immunisation programme. Abu Dhabi had introduced it last year, she said.
The doctor said the virus is active during winters and summers and that half-million children die around the globe year after infection. There is a huge cost in hospitalisation and after care of this infection, she said, noting that Oman spends Dh9 million every year.
The objective of the EMRO Week is to promote immunisation of people of all ages with a goal of protecting people at risk from vaccine preventable disease
