NHS Policy on HPV Vaccines Is Failing Females Aged 26–45

In 2006, a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine targeting the four most lethal strands was licensed. In the United Kingdom, females ages 12–13 were the first to be offered the vaccine in 2012. By 2018, the HPV vaccine was extended to males ages 12–13, and then “high-risk” individuals, that is, gay males and “men who have sex with men” (MSM) and, later, transmen and transwomen. Vaccination programs in the United Kingdom are limited; although everyone is at risk of HPV, not everyone is offered the vaccine as part of National Health Service (NHS) services, with age being the primary exclusionary factor. Those most affected are females—the very group most at risk for death from cancers related to HPV—who are ineligible for NHS vaccines after the age of 25. Closing the vaccination gap is essential to aligning individual and public health and remedy unethical policies.