HPV vaccination
Van Beekhuizen advises everyone, boys and girls, to get a vaccine. “With one injection you can reduce the risk of cancer by five percent. That means that by vaccinating twenty people, we can prevent one cancer case.”
Ten-year-old girls have been offered a vaccination against HPV since 2010. From 1 January 2022, boys aged 10 are also entitled to an injection. Van Beekhuizen: “It is important that boys are vaccinated. Not only because boys can transmit the virus to girls, they can also get cancer in the mouth, pharynx, penis and anus.”
In addition, it will soon be possible for 18 to 26-year-olds to still be vaccinated, even if that has not yet happened. It is not yet clear when this program will start. How useful is vaccination later in life? Van Beekhuizen: “It is less useful, but it certainly makes sense. In total, there are more than a hundred types of HPV, of which about seven cause cancer. The vaccination no longer helps if you are infected with one of those types. But if you don’t have a carcinogenic type yet, it still makes sense to get vaccinated.”