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THE HEALTH MINISTER has announced that the HSE will extend the HPV vaccination to boys next year.
The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) today published its assessment on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of extending the vaccine to boys. Currently, girls in their first year of secondary school are offered the 4-valent vaccine, which protects against four types of HPV.
Hiqa has advised switching from this vaccine to the 9-valent vaccine, which protects against an additional five types of HPV. It has also recommended that the vaccine is extended to boys in their first year of secondary school.
Minister Simon Harris said funding has already been made available in the budget to facilitate the introduction of the initiative in 2019.
Simon Harris TD / TwitterToday I have received from @HIQA their assessment of the HPV vaccine for boys. Following this positive outcome, I am delighted to announce that this life saving vaccine will be extended to boys next year #vaccinessavelives
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) December 7, 2018
“The efficacy of vaccination is well documented. The virtual eradication of Smallpox and elimination of Polio; increased protection for women and girls against cervical cancer; protection of the vulnerable against influenza – all are due to vaccination,” he said.
There have been attempts to spread fear and scaremonger. This came to light here in when there was an attempt to link the HPV vaccine with serious side effects. This continues to be a problem for Member States.
“This can have negative, and potentially long-lasting, consequences, particularly when such views are spread through online media.”
Switching to a different vaccination will cost an extra €870,000 over five years and extending it to boys will cost an additional €11.7 million over that same time period.
“A gender-neutral 9-valent vaccination programme, where both boys and girls are vaccinated, is estimated to be more effective than the girls-only alternative,” Dr Máirín Ryan, deputy chief executive of Hiqa said.
“It is likely that gender neutral 9-valent vaccination would also be cost-effective in light of the conservative assumptions used with regard to final cost, uptake rate and protection provided against all types of cancers.”
She pointed out that HPV is responsible for approximately one in every 20 cases of cancer across the world. Around 90% of people will be infected with HPV at some point in their lives.
Every year, 538 cancers associated with the virus are diagnosed in Ireland, including in the cervix, anus, penis, neck and throat. HPV infection is also responsible for genital warts.
Hiqa also carried out a safety assessment by reviewing data in 10 studies. It said conclusions across all ten were consistent:
Out of the 242 submissions Hiqa received as part of its public consultation, 49 related to safety.
Ryan said the watchdog had looked at data from 70,000 trial participants and 20 million individuals who received the vaccine under observation.
She said part of establishing whether a vaccination has caused an issue is looking at whether there were increased incidences of serious adverse effects in those who had the vaccine, compared to those who received a placebo.
With a number of syndromes that have been claimed to be linked to the vaccination, she said no increased incidences were found compared to numbers of those who developed these conditions after receiving the placebo.
Dr Ryan said extending the vaccine to boys will provide direct protection for them and indirect protection to girls who have not been vaccinated, reducing HPV-related disease and mortality in Ireland. Over 20 years, Hiqa estimates these two changes to the current programme will prevent an additional 101 cases of cervical cancer.
“This assessment demonstrates that the HPV vaccine provides effective primary prevention against HPV infection and HPV-related disease, and that the vaccine is safe.”
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It was outrageous boys were excluded in the first place. Glad to see it put right.
@izotope: check out the group regret first.
@Robert Nugent: is that a band?
@Mark: no mark, it’s a victims group.
Jonathan Irwin, founder of Jack & Jill charity for sick children, explains how the Gardasil HPV vaccine has injured his daughter, and how the health services in Ireland have done nothing to help.
I’m not anti vaccine, however people should know all the facts. Like the swine flu vaccine which destroyed so many lives. Read the manufactures declarations.
@Robert Nugent: Show me the scientifically proven, peer reviewed facts please. This anti-vax nonsense has to be shown to be the nonsense it is.Correlation does not equal causation
@An bhearna: just read the manufactures declarations on the vaccine and make your own decision.
@Robert Nugent: So “here’s our ass-covering legal mumbo jumbo” means more to you than actual scientific evidence? Says a lot about how you think medicine works.
@An bhearna: @Robert Nugent: Autoimmunity is poorly understood. There are some studies showing increases in autoimmune diseases after some vaccines. Then again catching viruses can also trigger autoimmune diseases.
@John Murphy: Poorly understood? Not that poorly when it comes to smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, yellow fever, typhus, tetanus, etc, etc, etc. Understood enough to save millions of lives.
Let’s hear what Gemma O’Doherty has to say on this first – I understand she is quite the expert in this area.
@Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: I hope you mean that ironically.
Why is this even discussed? It’s a pretty obvious and beneficial health measure.
@George Salter: Since when has discussing important issues become such a taboo?
Fantastic news. This will go some way to undoing some of the damage conspiracy theorists and sexual moralists have wreaked putting our daughters at risk.
Great news. And about time.
Good news, but it should have been giving to boys at the same time as girls. Supposedly, transmission rates of HPV from women to men is much higher than the other way around.
@Lisa Saputo: and also men to men is a big issue for the risk of anal cancer.
@Lisa Saputo: Agreed, and delighted to see boys are eligible to get it now. I always thought it was a cheap move to leave the lads out. Glad to see that Ireland can afford to treat them equally next year :-)
What will the antivax brigade say when there isn’t a huge spike in vaccine injured boys after the roll out?
Although knowing them, theyll find ‘evidence’ somewhere.
@FlyingDogThing:
I’m not saying that the Regret group is right but being skeptical about the HPV vaccine shouldn’t be put on the same level as being opposed to the MMR vaccine because measles, mumps and rubella are much more contagious than HPV, which is a sexually-transmitted infection.
@Ciarán Masterson: The results of the study linking the MME vaccine to autism were faked though.
@Ciarán Masterson: it’s still incredibly contagious. As far as I know, somewhere around 80% of sexually active people have had it, even if it hasn’t resulted in cancer in most of them. So it’s not your run of the mill STI, it’s a massively contagious and widespread one with an extremely high success rate at transmitting from person to person.
Don’t forget the parents in the Regret group have their girls the vaccine….. They were not anti vax
I’m not anti vaccination but I’m very cautious of the HPV vax… Look into Regret.ie some very sad cases of young women and the side effects connected to the uptake of HPV vaccine!!!
@Marc Quinn: the side effects are still probably better than cancer
@Y U no spell good?: I’m sure the young women affected by this will be relieved….. Probably!!!
My Doctor just wrote a prescription for this Gardasil I’m a male 31 years old. He told me it’s good for up to age 45, not sure if my insurance will fully cover it. If not it’s $600 max (currently living in Canada). Wondering if it’s worth getting at my age now have never heard anyone over 18 getting the vaccine.
@Pádraíg O’hEidhin: I got the full three doses of gardasil 9 last year at the age of 31. My insurance covered so i thought feck it why not? Also living in Canada. Doc told me same thing. It’s good til 45 and fair play for getting it.
when I got an STD test I asked about HPV was told they don’t bother testing for it as it is so common
Grear news!
The vast majority of those campaigning against this vaccination are not genuinely concerned about side effects, they’re right wing authoritarians who privately believe that getting an STI and even possibly dying of cancer is a good “deterrent” from the “sin” of teenagers engaging in sexual activity with their peers outside marriage. The likes of Fidelma “Fornication” Healy Eames’ involvement in the regret campaign should tell people all they need to know – this has nothing to do with health and everything to do with trying to turn back the tide on sexual liberation.
have your say