HPV Vaccine Reduces Cervical Abnormalities

In a study in Australia, the HPV vaccine Gardasil helped to reduce the number of teenage girls who develop cervical abnormalities by as much as 50 percent. The vaccine appeared, however, to have much less impact on older women.

In the study, which took place in the state of Victoria, researchers compared Pap smear test results of girls after they received the Gardasil vaccine in a national, public-funded vaccination program in 2007 and 2008 with test results of earlier batches of girls who were never vaccinated. Results of the study showed that proportionately fewer girls (.42 percent) vaccinated with the Gardasil vaccine developed highgrade cervical abnormalities compared with unvaccinated girls (.8 percent).

“In conjunction with the data from our colleagues in the sexual health field, who have already demonstrated a significant reduction in the occurrence of genital warts since the vaccine program started, we are optimistic that this is an indication that the vaccine program is already beginning to have an impact,” said Julia Brotherton, an epidemiologist with the Victorian Cytology Service Registries. The study appeared in The Lancet journal.