Schools should urge boys – and not just girls – to have a controversial vaccine to protect them from cancer, teachers said yesterday.

All teenage boys should be encouraged to have the vaccine to counteract a rise in cancers linked to the human papilloma virus, they demanded.

HPV can cause cervical cancer in women and a wide range of other cancers in men, yet only girls are routinely vaccinated against it.

Schools should urge boys – and not just girls – to have a controversial vaccine to protect them from cancer, teachers said yesterday (Stock image)

Campaigners say the vaccination programme is discriminatory and will soon mean male cancers caused by the virus will outstrip those occurring in women.

Public Health England last night said it was now reviewing whether to extend the HPV vaccination programme to adolescent boys following a pilot scheme for gay men.

Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said that in the meantime they wanted schools to encourage boys to explore the option of getting themselves vaccinated.

This week Boots announced it would vaccinate anyone of either sex under the age of 44 for a fee of between £300 and £450.

But critics say it is unwise to promote the vaccine further following a number of cases in which girls have become ill or even paralysed in what parents say have been severe reactions.

Two of the many strains of HPV are known to cause cancer and are commonly passed on through sex or oral sex.

In women it is thought to be the cause of around 2,790 cases of cervical cancer annually, but it is also responsible for more than 2,000 cases of cancer in men.

Since 2008 girls aged 12 and 13 have been routinely vaccinated at school in an effort to protect them before they become sexually active. Health bosses believe this also protects boys because they cannot contract the virus from an immunised girl.

HPV can cause cervical cancer in women and a wide range of other cancers in men, yet only girls are routinely vaccinated against it (Stock image)

However, the programme does not protect men who sleep with those who have not had the vaccine, those living abroad or other men.

Yesterday members of the ATL told their annual conference that boys should be encouraged to consider vaccination. Sree Varshini Rajkumar, a teacher from Berkshire, said: ‘360,000 boys are left unprotected each year. We have a duty of care to provide them with the information they need to choose to get vaccinated.’

ATL passed a resolution calling for the union to raise awareness that HPV can cause a range of illnesses besides cervical cancer. However, the move is likely to prove controversial because of the number of cases of families who say their daughters have become ill from the vaccine.

Freda Birrell, of the UK Association of HPV Vaccine Injured Daughters, said: ‘We have 420 families on our register who say their daughters have had an adverse reaction to the HPV vaccine and the number grows all the time.

‘It is devastating for the families to see their daughters lose their teenage years. Schools should not be encouraging boys to be taking the vaccine when they don’t know all the facts.’ Public Health England says there is ‘no credible evidence’ of a link between the jab and chronic illnesses.