A recent three-day event at the University of Chicago campus was held to promote awareness of HPV and the new vaccine everyone has been talking about. And it was co-sponsored by Peer Health Educators, a student program, and three companies: Sony, Avon and Merck.

One day, there were free makeovers. Another brought live music. And there was a day devoted just to discussing men’s health. “We felt that it’s very rare that there’s a men’s health event on campus. We wanted to bring men’s health into a seemingly women-specific issue,” Colleen Christensen, a second-year Peer Health Educator, tells the Chicago Maroon, the school newspaper.

Not only were free coffee and t-shirts given away, so were little bags of peanuts labeled with instructions on how to give ‘self-testicular exams.’ Peanuts? Why not beer bottles? Anyway, here’s the message young men: One day, you won’t have to worry that your short and curlies are sporting warts or growing harmful cells if the Merck vaccine is approved for fellas like you.

A similar event is being held at Ohio State University as part of a pilot program, and Merck plans to sponsor the same thing at 20 other universities this fall. By the time Merck convinces the FDA to approve Gardasil For Guys, a whole generation of educated young men will be primed for a shot. And they’ll no longer have to associate peanuts with tricky maneuvers.

Source: The Chicago Maroon

[tags]Gardasil, HPV, Merck[/tags]