The struggle to get the HPV vaccine approved for both women and men to protect them from cancer was failed when the federal advisory panel declined to recommend that a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine be routinely given to boys and young men to prevent genital warts.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), instead, issued a "permissive" recommendation saying that the physicians do reserve the right to vaccinate boys with HPV vaccine Gardasil for genital-wart protection. It added that boys should receive this vaccine before being exposed to HPV through sexual contact.

The US Food and Drug Administration, in 2006, approved Gardasil for use in girls and young women to prevent cervical and other cancers as well as pre-cancerous growths caused by HPV types 16 and 18.

Gardasil was also approved last week by the FDA for use in males aged 9 to 26 to prevent genital warts.

While making its recommendation, the ACIP seems to have been swayed partly due to the published research questioning the cost-effectiveness of routine vaccination of boys with Gardasil.

There is a huge economic impact of the committee's recommendation because third-party payers typically pay for vaccinations that are recommended for routine use, but not those which have a permissive recommendation.

The proponents of routine vaccination of boys with Gardasil said that much more was at stake than was being perceived. They pointed out that there was also a need to prevent oral, throat, penile, and anal cancers which are caused by HPV.