The news that hundreds of thousands of British teenage boys could soon be given the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine is to be welcomed. For a decade, schoolgirls have been given it to ward off cervical cancer and, as the Observer has reported, many doctors believe boys should be similarly protected against a virus that can cause deadly cancers of the mouth and anus in males.

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Last week, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation announced it broadly backed extending the programme to boys and health minister, Steve Brine, indicated he considered this reasonable. “I am looking at the advice carefully and will announce a decision very soon,” he said. The nature of that decision is clear. The government must back the expansion of the HPV vaccine to schoolboys, a move that will eventually save hundreds of lives a year.