A team of experts has found that women who have been vaccinated for Human Papillomavirus in childhood are at a lower risk of cervical cancer. They have said that the HPV vaccine lowers the risk of developing cervical cancer. The study has been done by Swedish scientists. The Swedish study has shown that the risk of cervical cancer has been decreased by 88 percent among the women who have been vaccinated before the age of 17 years. While the risk of the dreaded disease has been reduced by 53 percent among those who have been immunized between the age of 17 years to 30 years. This study has been published in the issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Previous studies have shown that the HPV vaccine is quite helpful in reducing the risk of genital warts and cervical precancer. The HPV vaccine is commonly used for preventing Human Papillomavirus. Now, the new study comes out with solid evidence, which shows that it can prevent invasive cervical cancer as well. Experts say that this is the first research, which determines that the HPV vaccine can protect against cervical cancer on the population level. Young girls who have been immunized in childhood have better protection as they have immunity before exposure to HPV through sexual activity. Nearly 527871 girls have been given at least one dose of the vaccine during the study itself. This study has been conducted on nearly 1.7 million women aged from 10 years to 30 years. Experts have observed the participants from 2006 to 2017.
At the end of the study, around 538 women have been diagnosed with cervical cancer, while only 19 immunized women have been diagnosed with the disease. Most of the health professionals around the world believe that most invasive cervical cancer can be prevented if we prevent cervical precancer. However, some experts completely oppose the findings of the new study. Human Papillomavirus is a group of pathogens, that triggers genital warts and most cases of cervical cancer.
