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26-12-2021, 01:22 PM
While the human papillomavirus (HPV) which can cause cancer can be prevented by vaccination, only women get this protection on a regular basis in Singapore.
A local group, the Alliance for Active Action Against HPV, is hoping to change this.
Launched in March, the group hopes to organise more workshops for men with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. The aim is to raise awareness of HPV and the diseases it can cause.
"When you want to share this kind of thing, you have to talk face to face," said Mr Tan Han Sen, a volunteer with the group.
It is easier for men to broach the topic with their peers, he added. "If you ask a woman to talk to a man, the man might say, 'I don't have this kind of problem.'"
Professor Roy Chan, president of non-governmental organisation Action for Aids and a specialist in sexually transmitted infections, said men need to be vaccinated as well. "We cannot protect men by protecting only women. Men must also get that protection."
There are more than 100 strains of HPV, and they are often transmitted through sexual contact. While the virus is most commonly linked to cervical cancer in women, it can also cause rare cancers like anal cancer and oropharyngeal cancer - a form of head and neck cancer.
Men with HPV also have a higher risk of developing cancer of the p_nis, a rare malignancy.
The number of patients with such rare cancers is small, and data is sparse. A local study conducted this year estimated the number of oropharyngeal cancer cases at less than one per 100,000 people here annually.
But doctors suspect case numbers are rising with changing attitudes towards casual sex, and they fear the numbers could hit "epidemic status" in the future.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/h...o-say-docs
A local group, the Alliance for Active Action Against HPV, is hoping to change this.
Launched in March, the group hopes to organise more workshops for men with the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. The aim is to raise awareness of HPV and the diseases it can cause.
"When you want to share this kind of thing, you have to talk face to face," said Mr Tan Han Sen, a volunteer with the group.
It is easier for men to broach the topic with their peers, he added. "If you ask a woman to talk to a man, the man might say, 'I don't have this kind of problem.'"
Professor Roy Chan, president of non-governmental organisation Action for Aids and a specialist in sexually transmitted infections, said men need to be vaccinated as well. "We cannot protect men by protecting only women. Men must also get that protection."
There are more than 100 strains of HPV, and they are often transmitted through sexual contact. While the virus is most commonly linked to cervical cancer in women, it can also cause rare cancers like anal cancer and oropharyngeal cancer - a form of head and neck cancer.
Men with HPV also have a higher risk of developing cancer of the p_nis, a rare malignancy.
The number of patients with such rare cancers is small, and data is sparse. A local study conducted this year estimated the number of oropharyngeal cancer cases at less than one per 100,000 people here annually.
But doctors suspect case numbers are rising with changing attitudes towards casual sex, and they fear the numbers could hit "epidemic status" in the future.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/h...o-say-docs
