Majority of people don’t know HPV can affect men as well as women

The majority of people are unaware that HPV can affect men as well as women.

A new study has shown that 63 percent of people don't know that both men and women are as risk of catching the sexually transmitted infection. The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) virus causes 6,500 women in Ireland to need hospital treatment for pre cancer of the cervix every year. Of these, 300 women will develop cervical cancer from the HPV virus, and 90 women will die. Up to 30 men will also die from HPV related cancers which can cause penile, anal and oropharyngeal cancers. Research carried out by MSD Ireland showed that over two thirds of Irish people are unaware that men and women are both at risk of the infection. 89 percent of men also don’t realise that they are likely to contract HPV at some stage in their lives. This comes after Leo Varadkar announced that boys in secondary school were going to receive the HPV vaccine for free from next year. The government have plans to extend the programme to boys in 2019 due to the "considerable health benefits" associated with the jab. The vaccine is currently given to all secondary school girls in their first year of school. Both girls and boys in countries including Austria, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US are already offered HPV vaccines by the state.