Polcy recommendations: equal access for boys and girls to the HPV vaccine

In addition to an altered education program and public health campaign which promotes sexual health as a responsibility of both genders, we recommend the HPV policy be altered to increase and equalize men and boys’ access to the HPV vaccine. In order to address the gender implications of this policy we would contact the Canadian Women’s Health Network whose views on the HPV vaccine are similar with our own. In contacting the Canadian Women’s Health Network we would attempt to form an alliance with them, and as a team, encourage the public to submit letters to Canadian Ministry of Health. These letters would lobby the federal government to impose immediate pressure on Merck to file an application asking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to evaluate the testing of Gardasil on boys and men age 9 to 26. Following an exhaustion of all long term and short term side effects we, along with the Canadian Women’s Health Organization, and the supportive Canadian public, would impose pressure on the Canadian government and drug company Merck to include males equally in their vaccination policies. Merck appears interested in including boys in the distribution of the vaccine. However, two years have passed since policies surrounding HPV were implemented in schools across Canada. We along with our allegiances would therefore work to impose pressure on the government and Drug Company to ensure this occurs in a timely fashion.

Another potential ally in this process (other than the Canadian Women’s Health Network) is Dr. Harald zur Hausen, the 72-year-old German scientist who created the vaccine and was named as the Nobel Prize winner for medicine. Hausen is an avid supporter of vaccinating girls as well as boys. When speaking to 400 researchers and health specialists in Toronto in late October t at the MaRS Centre on College St. he recommended mandatory HPV vaccination for males as well as females. He stated it would be a show of "gender solidarity." As Hausen is clearly a well respected expert within the topic of the HPV, and has access, through his organized lectures to hundreds of influential health care professionals, researches, in addition to media, he could prove to be a valuable ally for us in equalizing access to the HPV vaccine.