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Family rocked by cancer can't understand why HPV vaccine isn't widely covered for boys

(L to R), Stephen Taraba, Taya Taraba, Lori Taraba, Brock Taraba and Conner Taraba (Canadian Cancer Society)
(L to R), Stephen Taraba, Taya Taraba, Lori Taraba, Brock Taraba and Conner Taraba (Canadian Cancer Society)

When Lori Taraba’s twin boys were 10 months old, one of them was diagnosed with leukemia. The news that rocked the Niagara Falls, Ont. family and meant years of intensive treatment for her son. He’s 17 now, and Taraba says that it was research that saved her child’s life.

“We were told that our son was gravely ill, and his prognosis was not very good,” Taraba recalls. “New research had just been developed for the type of high-risk leukemia that he had. He had chemo for 26 months and then radiation. I’m a big believer in research because research is why he’s here.”

With evidence showing that the vaccine to protect against the human papilloma virus (HPV) can help prevent certain types of cancer in men and women, Taraba says she can’t understand why it’s not offered for free to boys like hers across the country. All provinces provide access to the vaccine to girls, but only three fund it publicly for boys. 

“We’ve been through a cancer diagnosis, and it’s not fun,” Taraba says. “It completely derails the whole family. If you have the opportunity to prevent something like this, why wouldn’t you?

“If it’s important to one Canadian, it should be important to all Canadians,” she adds. “If we’re inoculating children in Alberta and P.E.I., we should be inoculating children in Ontario too. I believe in equal access to health care. If it’s important to Canadians as a whole it should be readily available.”

HPV is best known for being linked with cervical cancer in women. However, it’s also a major cause of oropharyngeal cancer in men and women. Relating to the mouth and pharynx, this is the type of cancer that actor Michael Douglas was treated for. It can also lead to anal cancer in men and women, vulvar and vaginal cancers in women, and penile cancer in men.

The virus is one of the most prevalent sexually transmitted infections in Canada, with nearly 75 per cent of sexually active men and women having at least one infection in their lifetime, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

“Historically, HPV has been notorious for cervical cancer…but what has been forgotten is that this illness is an extreme burden on males as well,” says Ottawa pharmacist Jaime McDonald, a contributor to the Cancer Advocacy Coalition of Canada’s 2014-15 Report Card on Cancer in Canada. “The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends that males receive the HPV vaccine, and this is mirrored by the opinion of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States.”

In 2013, Prince Edward Island became the first Canadian province to offer the HPV vaccine to boys as part of their routine, publicly funded vaccination schedule. The following year, Alberta began offering it. Earlier this month, Nova Scotia announced it too would offer access to the vaccine to boys, a move that was lauded by the Canadian Cancer Society.

MP Peter Kent applauds it too. He was treated last year for cancer of the throat and tongue.

“A biopsy revealed I had stage 4 cancer,” Kent says. “I was shocked by the diagnosis. Doctors removed some lymph nodes, then I had seven weeks of radiation five days a week and three major chemo treatments. It was months of recovery from side effects.

“By vaccinating only half the population, just girls, we’re leaving the other half of the population exposed to the possibility of a variety of precancerous conditions as well as cancer,” adds Kent, spokesperson for the HPV Awareness Corporation, a registered charity. “I’m firmly advocating and hope that one day soon boys and girls will be completely covered by a pre-adolescent vaccine program….This would seem to be a good investment against much greater costs of treatment later in life and a healthier population.”

McDonald notes too that men who have sex with men are clearly not protected by a program that vaccinates girls only.

Although provincial and territorial governments may use expense as an excuse not to cover the vaccine in boys, a new study published in the journal Cancer has found that vaccination to be cost-effective for oropharyngeal cancer, saving $145 per person compared to the cost of not vaccinating.

The HPV vaccine is most effective if given before people come into contact with the virus via sexual activity. The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends males and females be vaccinated between the ages of nine and 26. 

“Several professional organizations including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Dermatology Association, the Canadian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Canadian Cancer Society, and the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, among others, vocally support expansion of HPV vaccination programs to males,” McDonald writes in the Report Card on Cancer in Canada. “On a global stage, Australia, the United States and Austria have all expanded their HPV vaccination programs to include males.”