By Ben Spencer Medical Correspondent For The Daily Mail
Published: 23:01 BST, 5 April 2019 | Updated: 23:01 BST, 5 April 2019
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Chemists are charging up to £475 to vaccinate teenage boys against the cancer-causing HPV virus in advance of an expected rush for the jabs.
From September boys across the UK will be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus in Year Eight at school, when they are aged 12 or 13.
But an estimated two million older boys will miss out on the vaccination programme – to the fury of health campaigners.
Many high street chemists offer the vaccinations privately, but charge up to £475 for a three-jab course, which experts say makes it unaffordable to all but the wealthiest families.
When the vaccine was first offered to Year Eight girls in 2008 the NHS put in place a temporary ‘catch-up’ programme, offering the vaccine to any girl up to the age of 18, to ensure as much coverage as possible.
Chemists are charging up to £475 to vaccinate teenage boys against the cancer-causing HPV virus in advance of an expected rush for the jabs
But they have refused to introduce a similar catch-up programme for boys, meaning even 13-year-olds in Year Nine will miss out.
Experts estimate HPV causes around 2,500 cases of cancer in men each year and around 650 deaths, mainly from cancers of the throat and mouth. Peter Baker, of the HPV Action charity, said last night: ‘It’s a big problem. The vaccines are available privately but most people will be priced out. They either won’t be able to afford it or they won’t even know that it is
