Source: www.huffingtonpost.co.uk Author: Dr Shaun Griffin Last month the world marked Immunization Week, an opportunity to raise awareness about the importance of routine life-saving immunizations and how they have transformed our approach to public health over the course of centuries. Close the Immunization Gap was this year's theme by the World Health Organisation. Progress towards global vaccination targets for 2015 is far off-track, according to the WHO one in five children still miss out on routine life-saving immunizations that could avert 1.5 million deaths each year from preventable diseases. The immunization gap also extends to gender, age and sexuality. A vaccination programme against the human papillomavirus (HPV) began in 2008 in the UK for girls aged 12-13 to reduce their risk of developing cervical cancer, which is caused by HPV. However, emerging research over the past eight years has found that cancers of the head, mouth, throat, penis and anus can also be caused by strains of the virus. The incidence rate of anal cancer in men who have sex with men (MSM) is increasing. Anal cancer incidence rates in MSM are equivalent to the rates that existed for cervical cancer in women before 1988, when the Government introduced the cervical cancer screening programme. Cancer Research UK (CRUK) estimated incidence rate of anal cancer is 78 per 100,000 per year in HIV-positive MSMs who are on HAART (anti-retroviral treatment), compared with 5 per 100,000 per year in HIV-negative MSMs. Around 5,500 men were diagnosed with oral, penile or anal cancer [...]