On Wednesday the JCVI, the committee that makes recommendations about vaccinations, delayed its final decision about extending the HPV programme to boys as well as girls. The reason given was that more work was needed on modelling the consequences of doing so.
This is a welcome development given the statements the JCVI had previously published seemed to significantly understate the role of HPV in causing head and neck cancer.
Head and neck cancer patient groups are of one mind on this issue, as are the clincians’ associations, and we hope the re-modelling will lead to a final recommendation for equal vaccination.