HPV, Human Papilloma Virus, remains one of the most highly contagious sexually transmitted infections throughout the world. There is a 50 – 80 per cent chance of transmission following unprotected sexual intercourse with someone with a current HPV infection (1). This is a virus that causes five per cent of all cancers. The human papillomavirus also causes 48,000 diagnoses of genital warts each year in men in the United Kingdom.
The vaccination against the HPV for young girls was introduced in 2008. That vaccine protects young girls from cervical cancer, and now further advancements have been made to the immunisation to protect against further strains of HPV causing different types of cancer, or genital warts. It is welcome that the age cut-off has been raised to further prevent from other stains of HPV amongst young women, but there is still an age cut-off nonetheless.
Yet it is the case that over 2,000 men in the UK each year are diagnosed with HPV- related cancers. Vaccinating young girls does indeed protect some men against HPV – but not men that sleep with men and men who have sex with unvaccinated women. It is also the case that young men, who later in life transition to become a woman are not vaccinated – this is a huge oversight.
It is therefore vitally important that we continue to vaccinate young women against HPV, but obvious that we must also ensure that we are vaccinating all genders.
Common sense shows us that we, as Labour, must ensure that we act quickly to introduce gender-neutral HPV vaccinations in the UK. It is unethical, discriminatory and just poor public policy to exclude boys from the HPV vaccination programme.
We are the party for equality. It was because of the last Labour government that there anti-discriminatory legislation for LGBT people was introduced in the UK. It was the last Labour government that introduced civil partnerships. And whilst same-sex marriage has passed in the UK, it is still unfortunately not the case that we are ‘equal’.
There are still vast inequalities for the LGBT community within our health service. These include a failure to provide adequate mental health services, access to existing health services and includes this failure to immunise against HPV.
Excluding boys from this vaccine may be in breach of the Equality Act 2010. In fact it is also case that the much-hated Health and Social Care Act 2012 includes a requirement for health inequalities to be reduced. The NHS constitution itself includes a commitment to provide a ‘comprehensive service’, available to all irrespective of gender and sexual orientation.
The cost implications to vaccinate all genders from HPV are estimated at around £20 -£22m a year. Whilst there will be those who say this is not a priority – this is modest when compared to the costs of treating HPV-related health conditions that we could have prevented.
The gender-neutral vaccine has been rolled out in many countries around the world including Australia in 2013. And however distasteful they may be, there are even adverts in Australia warning people not to sleep with British backpackers because of the HPV epidemic. Surely this should be enough to prompt us to support and protect the young people in pursuit of an adventure down under.
While some Labour members of parliament are already behind this – we need more than ever to ensure that the Labour party is sticking to its principles in supporting this just cause. Whilst EDM 464 tabled by the Ulster unionist’s Danny Kinahan MP is seeking to ensure MPs from all sides of the house support the calls to include jabs for adolescent boys, we must go further. We must ensure that the HPV vaccine is available for men who sleep with men at every GUM clinic, much like the hepatitis B vaccine was made available under the last Labour government.
This is necessary to protect young people now and later in life. But it is also the right thing for our NHS – preventing and protecting everyone, fairly and equally across the country.
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Rob Young is national union of students LGBT+ officer (open place) and sits on the HPV Action working group
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(1) NCIRS, Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for Australians: Information Providers: (March 2013)