HPV vaccine to thank for 89% decline in cervical cancer
A new analysis has found that human papillomavirus (HPV)
vaccination of 12 and 13 year old girls has led to an 89% decline in cases of
cervical cancer in Scotland.
The
evidence, published in the British Medical Journal,
was from a retrospective study looking at 138,692 women who were born between
January 1, 1988 and June 5, 1996, and who had a smear test result recorded at
age 20.
The
researchers discovered that compared with unvaccinated women born in 1988,
vaccinated women born in 1995 and 1996 showed an 89% reduction in
prevalent cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade three or worse – the
most severe level of the disease. There was also an 88% reduction in grade two
or worse and a 79% in the grade one strain of the disease.
The
authors of the study also suggested that there was a “herd immunity” effect at
play, as there was also a drop in the levels of disease among women who have
not been vaccinated.
Julia
Brotherton, the medical director of Australia’s National HPV Vaccination
Program Register at VCS Foundation, commented in a linked editorial in the
journal: “We must work towards a world in which all girls and their families
are offered, and the majority accept, HPV vaccination, wherever they live.
“We must
also actively develop, resource, and scale up more effective, feasible and
culturally acceptable strategies for cervical screening, such as
self-collection of specimens, if we are ever to effectively reduce the global
burden of cervical cancer.”
The news
comes at the same time as a study from Sweden has found that women who attended
cervical cancer screening at recommended intervals have a fifth the risk of
adenosquamous cell carcinoma and a third the risk of rare types of invasive
cervical carcinoma as women who did not attend screening as recommended.
Cervical
cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women and a major cause of morbidity
and mortality worldwide.
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