Key Messages

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• We have the means to protect everyone – whatever their sex or gender – from high-risk HPV infections and the cancers they cause. To achieve this, a more ambitious, ethical and equitable approach to HPV vaccination is needed at the global and national levels.

 

• Global Action on Men’s Health, NOMAN is an Island: Race to End HPV and the supporters of this Call are seeking the worldwide adoption of gender-neutral (ie. universal) vaccination (GNV) by 2030 with a 90% uptake goal.

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• We urge global public health organisations to prioritise the elimination of all the cancers caused by HPV. Every young person should be considered a primary target for vaccination by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other key health organisations including Gavi, The Vaccines Alliance.

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• From an epidemiological perspective, when both males and females are at risk of HPV, it is illogical to immunise girls alone. Only GNV can achieve the elimination of the vaccine-related high-risk HPV types and prevent the cervical and other cancers they cause.

 

• About 1 in 5 men has a current high-risk HPV infection. A conservative estimate of the number of new HPV cancer cases in men globally is 180,000 annually, with the actual number quite plausibly much higher.

 

• Despite the burden of HPV-related cancers in men, there are no established routine screening programmes for these cancers leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment.

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• GNV increases the resilience of vaccination programmes, helping to protect against crises in vaccine confidence or disruption caused by pandemics, natural disasters or conflict.

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• Vaccinating both boys and girls de-feminises and de-stigmatizes immunisation programmes. GNV shares the responsibility for cancer prevention more equitably between the sexes.

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• WHO’s recent recommendation of the option of single-dose vaccination programmes, combined with increasing vaccine supply, makes GNV feasible on a global basis.