Sarah Wollaston – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate his Department has made of how many men who have sex with men (MSM) are expected to receive the HPV vaccine each year as a result of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s recommendation that it be offered at sexual health clinics; and what proportion of the MSM population aged up to 45 his Department estimates will have been vaccinated within (a) one year, (b) five years and (c) 10 years of that vaccine first being so offered.

Jane Ellison

In November 2015, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters, advised that a targeted human papillomavirus vaccination programme should be undertaken for men who have sex with men (MSM) up to 45 years of age who attend genitourinary medicine and HIV clinics. They noted that this should be subject to procurement of the vaccine and delivery of the programme at a cost-effective price. JCVI acknowledged that finding a way to implement its advice would be challenging and made clear that work was needed by the Department and others to consider commissioning and delivery routes for this programme. This work is already underway and we will announce our plans as soon as we can.

The Department is not yet in a position to suggest estimates of the numbers or proportion of MSM who might be vaccinated from this potential vaccination programme.