For sure. Once again, I can only talk about B.C., but in B.C., HPV immunization is now approved by the province for people up to the age of 24 years. I think that's a little bit too short of a time span. I don't want to get too much into the science of it but to give you an idea, in the general population, anal cancer rates are 1.5 incidence rates per year, 1.5 to 2 per 100,000. It's fairly low. Cervical cancer rates pre-screening, before there was the cervical pap test, were 35 per 100,000. In the gay men population, it's estimated that anal cancer rates are about 45 per 100,000. It really begs to be screened and to have effective treatments.
There have been studies that have shown that even in what we call post-exposure, ideally the HPV vaccine needs to be given before exposure. That's why we give it to nine-year-old kids. That's when it's most effective, but there have been quite a few studies both in men and women in post-exposed people who have evidence of HPV-related disease that the vaccine is still effective. It's to a lesser degree, but it's still effective.
Just as a reminder to this committee, HPV is like the common cold. Everybody gets it. I think that a vaccination is very important for the whole general population, but definitely for the gay men population.