HPV Action (HPVA) is a collaborative partnership of 51 patient and professional organisations that are working to reduce the health burden of HPV. Between 2013 and 2018, HPVA delivered an advocacy campaign that succeeded in achieving gender-neutral HPV vaccination. This means that all boys and girls in the UK will be routinely offered vaccination against HPV at the age of 12/13.
HPVA is now working to ensure that the boys' vaccination programme is implemented quickly and effectively. Specifically, we would like to see:
1. Confirmation that boys in Northern Ireland will be vaccinated on the same basis as in the rest of the UK (no decision has yet been made for NI).
2. The announcement of a date for national rollout. We believe that September 2019 would be entirely realistic.
3. A catch-up programme for boys, offered on the same basis as currently offered to girls.
4. The development of appropriate educational and marketing materials for the new boys’ programme.
5. Widely-available information about the safety and value of vaccination to counter the growing negative publicity from the anti-vaccine lobby.
6. A workforce training programme and sufficient workforce capacity.
7. Action to tackle existing local variations in vaccination uptake. It is essential that uptake in boys and girls exceeds 80% in every part of the country.
8. Confirmation that the existing vaccination programme for men who have sex with men will continue and be properly resourced so that it reaches as many MSM as possible.
HPVA's work is co-ordinated by its Campaign Director, Peter Baker, Director of Global Action on Men's Health and former CEO, Men's Health Forum (GB).
HPV Action's advocacy work is funded almost entirely by its own members and not by any organisation with a financial interest in HPV vaccination for boys. A few small donations have also been made by individuals and Proctor and Gamble kindly donated a total of GBP 4,170.00. The development of HPV Action's Jabs for the Boys website was supported by a ring-fenced educational grant from MSD. This grant was paid to the Oral Health Foundation, one of HPVA’s members, which managed the project. All HPVA's funds are administered by the Oral Health Foundation.
