Group recommends boys get HPV vaccine

Vaccine interrupts transmission, development of cancer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending boys get the human papillomavirus vaccine.

Previously, the academy only backed routine vaccinations for girls against HPV, but academy members changed their minds after recommendations by U.S. vaccine advisers who found the vaccine safe and capable of stopping certain cancers.

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They now recommend boys 11 and 12 be immunized against HPV.

Dr. Michael Brady said the academy is hoping to push this as a "cancer vaccine."

"We now have the ability to interrupt the transmission and the development of cancer," he said.

It's estimated certain strains of HPV are responsible for 7,000 cases of cancer in men every year in the U.S. and 15,000 cases in women, most of them cervical cancers.

Health regulators have found no serious side effects apart from soreness at the injection site.