Transcript for HPV vaccine approved for men and women ages 27 to 45
Let’s turn to that “Gma” health alert about the HPV vaccine. The fda is releasing new guidelines expanding the age range recommending men and women up to 45 get the vaccine used to prevent cervical cancer and other diseases and Dr. Jennifer Ashton is here. Good morning. Good morning. This is — yes, she deserves a big round of applause. This is an important topic. This is a big change. This is a big change and it’s big news in medicine for men and women and big news in the cancer world. This vaccine came out in 2006. Initially it was recommended as young as 9 going up to age 26. Then the CDC really kind of tightened that age as recommended between 11 and 12 years of age for boys and for girls. A lot of people thought it was just for girls. It takes two so boys also and this expanded range is really for people who may be entering the dating world or who may have missed that previous window for the vaccine because they are showing some immune protection against these nine strains of human papillomavirus when given to older adults? A lot misinformation about it. A ton. We’ll put our audience on the spot here. You guys have your paddles ready to go. A true or false situation, first question, if you don’t have sex, you don’t have to worry about HPV, true or false? Oh, we have a smart audience, Cecilia. You are on point. This is false. HPV, yes, it can be sexually transmitted but it absolutely can and is spread by just direct skin to skin contact so, again, this is an example where we need to uncouple the medical and the social. People get very heated about this because you can see this with sex but, again, this is not just genital cancer, it’s cancers of the head and neck and it can be passed with direct skin to skin contact. One more. Let’s test your luck. If you’ve had HPV before, you can’t get it again, true or false? You guys are pretty much right. There are 30 high risk strains sexually associated. You can get one strain. You’ll be immune protected but can get exposed to many others. That’s where it’s important. It is expensive but once we see national associations recommending it, insurance companies usually will follow suit and cover the cost. Excellent information as always. Thank you.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.