By snoadmin
Cal State Long Beach’s male students are receiving more HPV vaccinations than in the past, according to the Health Resource Center on campus.
The Human Papillomavirus, known as HPV, is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
During the 2010-11 academic year, a total of 213 students received the HPV vaccination, an increase from 95 students in the 2009-10 year, according to a survey conducted by the Health Resource Center on campus.
During the fall 2011 semester, 121 students received the HPV vaccination and 13 percent of those recipients were men.
Heidi Burkey, a Health Resource Center coordinator, said an increasing number of men are receiving the vaccination since it has become available.
“Men are interested because they are a part of the transmission process,” Burkey said.
The FDA approved an HPV vaccine for men in 2010, although the FDA approved the same vaccination for women four years earlier, according to the American Social Health Association (ASHA).
There are approximately 100 strains of HPV, according to the ASHA. Some forms of HPV spread because of skin-to-skin contact between males and females during sexual conduct. HPV has 40 strains of the virus that transmit sexually, and a few of them result in genital warts and various types of cancers.
More than 50 percent of sexually active men and woman have a strain of HPV at some point in their lives. Most strains of HPV do not result in cell abnormalities.
Boys and young men, ages 9 to 26, can receive the Gardasil vaccination and be immune from the types of HPV that cause most genital warts and cancers, according to the ASHA.
At Student Health Services on campus, the vaccination is $145 for one shot, but three shots are needed to complete the vaccination.
“I haven’t had anyone pay for the shot in a while,” Burkey said.
Students do not have to pay for the vaccination because of private insurance companies and The Patient Assistance Program on campus.
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