Takeaway
- Starting April 2018, MSM will be offered free vaccination against HPV through local sexual health clinics.
Public Health England (PHE) recently made an announcement about offering free vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) infection to men who have sex with men (MSM). April 2018 onwards, MSM in England aged ≤45 years will be eligible to receive the HPV vaccine through local sexual health clinics.
Until now, HPV vaccination was routinely offered only to girls aged 12–13 years, with a catch-up program for girls aged up to 18 years. This practice can provide herd immunity to heterosexual males through cross-protection; however, MSM are not likely to benefit even though they are equally at risk for HPV-related cancers and genital warts.
The recommendation was made following the success of a 1-year pilot scheme which involved offering free HPV immunisation to MSM across 42 sexual health clinics in England. PHE found that sexual health clinics were quite capable of opportunistically delivering HPV vaccination without any major disruptions to their practice.
Olwen Williams, President of the British Association for Sexual Health (BASHH) and HIV lauded the decision saying that extension of the HPV vaccination programme to MSM was a crucial step, which the BASHH and partner organisation had been campaigning for long. "The recommendation will not only make the HPV vaccination program more uniform, but will also significantly improve sexual health outcomes for MSM," he added.
