HPV – vaccinating the boys to protect the girls
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
An intriguing consequence of Merck & Co’s efforts to get approval to use its HPV vaccine Gardasil in boys is that public health officials are re-assessing how they evaluate the way in which such vaccines are used. In the past, the debate centred on whether it is appropriate to offer adolescent girls a vaccine intended to stop the spread of a sexually transmitted disease. Now the argument is turning more to whether it is cost-effective, or ethical, to give a vaccine to one group of individuals at low risk of disease in order to protect a higher-risk group of individuals.