The Public Health Agency of Sweden has conducted an investigation into whether the national vaccination programme for children against human papilloma virus (HPV), which today is limited to girls, should be extended to also include boys.
This report describes the current knowledge, conditions, and assessments that will form the basis for making a decision on whether to extend the HPV vaccination programme to boys.
The Public Health Agency of Sweden should account for 13 factors when proposing changes of the national vaccination programme to the government. This report constitutes the knowledge base for 10 of them. The target groups who will be offered the vaccination (factor 4) is the main question of the investigation and is therefore excluded, the cost-effectiveness of the vaccination and the expenses and savings for the state, municipalities, and county councils (factor 10) is outlined in a separate report, and the medical ethics and humanitarian considerations (factor 13) are analysed and published separately by the Swedish National Council on Medical Ethics.
The main target group for this publication is the government of Sweden (the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs). It could also be of interest for health professionals, ministries of health, and public health institutions in other countries contemplating universal vaccination programmes against HPV. The report was composed by a working group consisting of both analysts from the Public Health Agency of Sweden and external experts (see Appendix 1).
- Background paper
- Europe
- Sweden
- Human papillomavirus (HPV)
