HPV Action (HPVA) was 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 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and at 11/12 in Scotland.
HPVA subsequently, but ultimately unsuccessfully, made the case for the introduction of a catch-up vaccination programme for boys. This would have ensured that boys who were too old to be vaccinated as part of the main vaccination programme were still offered protection against HPV infection before they are 18.
HPVA's work was co-ordinated by its Campaign Director, Peter Baker, Director of Global Action on Men's Health and former CEO, Men's Health Forum (GB).
HPVA's advocacy work was funded almost entirely by its own members and not by any organisation with a financial interest in HPV vaccination for boys. All HPVA's funds were administered by the Oral Health Foundation, one of HPVA's member organisations.
HPV Action was formally wound up on 30 September 2020. Several of its former members, as well as the Campaign Director, have continued to be involved in the issue via the European Cancer Organisation which, in December 2019, launched its HPV Action Network. One of the Network's key aims is to secure gender-neutral HPV vaccination across the 53 member states of the World Health Organisation's European region.
