Australia leads way on HPV vaccination in boys

Abstract

That, in July, Australia was the first country to announce a publicly funded national immunisation programme for human papillomavirus (HPV) in teenage boys is perhaps not surprising. Researchers there had a hand in the early stages of the vaccine's development, and a highly successful school-based immunisation programme with the quadrivalent Gardasil vaccine was launched for girls in 2007. Thus, extension of eligibility for the publicly funded programme to boys is perhaps a smaller step in Australia than it would be in other countries.