A CAMPAIGN to recommend boys receive a cancer vaccination, which is currently given only to girls, has been backed in East Lancashire.

Only adolescent girls currently receive the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination to protect against cervical cancer.

But the HPV group of viruses can also cause oral, penile and anal cancers, as well as genital warts, prompting calls by a medical coalition to extend such jabs to schoolboys.

Dr Tom Smith, the Lancashire Telegraph’s health expert, has supported the pressure being exerted by health coalition HPV Action.

He said: “It is a very, very good idea because boys can carry HPV under the foreskins and transmit it through sexual activity.

“It is not fair that the responsibility should just fall on girls, in this situation, and it is right that boys take their share.”

HPV Action, representing medical, patient and professional bodies, has been lobbying the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on the issue.

The government-approved panel has met in private and is due to publish its finding within the next six weeks.

Currently 12 and 13-year-old girls are given HPV jabs, usually in school.

Supporters of HPV Action said 11 countries, including Australia, Austria, Italy and Norway, already vaccinate boys or are planning to in the near future.

Peter Baker, campaign director, said: “HPV affects men and women equally and both sexes therefore deserve equal protection through a national vaccination programme.

“It is now time for the Government’s vaccination advisory committee to listen to the doctors treating men with cancers caused by HPV and, above all, to the men whose lives have been devastated, and act now to prevent the suffering of more men from this easily-preventable infection.”

The leadership of the British Dental Association (BDA) has also called on the committee to back the vaccination of boys.

Mick Armstrong, BDA chairman, said: “It is heart-breaking to see the impact oral cancers can have on our patients, when prevention could be so cheap and easy.

“HPV is the leading cause of oropharyngeal cancer, and the simple fact is men are just as likely to develop it as women.

“It is time for a universal vaccination programme. The authorities can no longer justify risking boys’ lives or the unnecessary pressures inaction has placed on the NHS.”

Public Health England, in a 2016 study, noted that there had been a 'continued reduction' in genital warts through female-only vaccination.

But the report’s authors did acknowledge that while young heterosexual men may benefit, this did not impact on men who had sex with other men (MSM).

One conclusion stated: “As a result, a targeted HPV vaccination pilot programme for MSM was introduced in England in 2016 to inform the potential national rollout of vaccination of (those) attending specialist (clinics).”