New research found the HPV vaccine significantly reduces occurrences of cervical abnormalities.
The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) can cause genital warts and eventually lead to cervical cancer, a BMJ-British Medical Journal news release reported.
A new study found the HPV vaccine greatly reduced instances of cervical, vulval, and vaginal lesions as well as genital warts in women; it also prevented "genital warts and high grade anal disease in men," the news release reported.
In the study, the researchers hoped to "estimate the effectiveness of the quadrivalent vaccine in the population of sexually naïve young women with no prior infection," the news release reported.
In order to make their findings the team looked at registers in Queensland over a four year period. The team identified "high grade" patients (those with serious abnormalities such as precancer), and "other cases" (women with abnormalities that did not meet the criteria for high grade).
The team looked at 103,353 women: 1, 062 were high grade cases, 10,887 were other cases, and 96,404 were controls. Eleven percent of high grade cases, 19 percent of other cases and 24 percent of controls were fully vaccinated.
The researchers found three doses of the vaccine provided 46 percent "protection against high grade cervical abnormalities and 34 [percent] protection against other cervical abnormalities," the news release reported. Two doses of the vaccine were found to provide 21 percent "protection against both high grade and other cervical abnormalities."
The team found the vaccine's effectiveness was not as high in the population of women who had one or more smear tests before receiving an abnormal one.
"This is probably because women who were already screening were already sexually active, so therefore more likely to be infected with HPV, prior to vaccination. High grade cases in particular were significantly more likely to have had one or more prior tests," the news release reported.
