GAY and bisexual men in Scotland will be offered the vaccine against a cancer-causing sexually transmitted virus for free for the first time next month.
From July 1, men aged up to 45 who have sex with men will be given the opportunity to be immunised against the human papilloma virus (HPV). It will be offered to eligible patients attending sexual health and HIV clinics, and will also be offered to gay and bisexual male prisoners through the Scottish prison health service.
The move will bring Scotland into line with England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which each began offering the HPV vaccine to gay and bisexual men in the past year.
Currently, the vaccine is only offered free to schoolgirls in Scotland to protect them from developing cervical cancer in later life - one of the cancers known to be caused by the virus.
However, since the introduction of the HPV immunisation programme in schools in 2008, evidence has emerged showing that the vaccine can also protect against some head and neck, genital and anal cancers which gay and bisexual men are currently unprotected against developing.
In a letter to Scottish health professionals signed off by Scotland's Chief Medical Officer Catherine Calderwood, Chief Nursing Officer Fiona McQueen and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Marie Parr, they said that while the girls' vaccination programme "confers indirect protection to heterosexual males", gay and bisexual men "receive little benefit". They added that "the successful introduction of this new vaccination programme will contribute towards reducing the risk of HPV associated cancers".
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