Gay and bisexual men with HIV should get vaccinated for human papillomavirus (HPV) up until age 40, according to updated guidelines from the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS), released this week at the 16th European AIDS Conference. And others with HIV should be vaccinated until age 26, the guidelines state.

"We wanted to make a strong point that patients with HIV infection, and gay men in particular, should get vaccinated," said Georg Behrens, MD, PhD, from the Hannover Medical School in Germany, who is chair of the comorbidities subcommittee of the EACS guidelines panel.

This differs from the US guidelines, which call for both men and women to be vaccinated for HPV until age 26 if they weren't vaccinated as preteens or teenagers, but make no special recommendations for gay or bisexual men.

Emerging data show that HPV-related cancers are growing in prevalence in all people with HIV, including gay men. People with HIV are 19 times more likely than those without HIV to be diagnosed with anal cancer, and women with HIV are three times more likely to be diagnosed with cervical cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Gay men with HIV are nearly five times as likely as those without HIV to develop anal cancer, one study reports (J Acquir Immune Defic SynDr. 2008;48:491-499).