Source: Channel4news.com

Author: Staff

 

A vaccine against a sexually transmitted disease which causes most forms of cervical cancer can protect older women, according to a new study.

Women aged from 24 to 45 who have not already been infected with the human papilloma virus (HPV) can be protected by the HPV vaccine, according to an article published in the medical journal The Lancet.  
HPV is a sexually transmitted disease which is responsible for most forms of cervical cancer.

Trials were conducted with over 3,000 women in the relevant age group who had not been infected with HPV. Half were given a placebo and half were given a vaccine which protects against four strains of HPV.

The researchers found that four cases of infection occurred in the vaccine group compared to 41 in the placebo group – meaning the vaccine was 91 per cent effective against all four virus strains.

Looking at HPV 16 and 18 only, which are responsible for 70 per cent of cases of cervical cancer, four cases occurred in the vaccine group compared with 23 in the placebo group, meaning the vaccine was 83 per cent effective.

When trials were conducted with women who had already been infected with HPV, the vaccine was only 30 per cent effective.

The report’s author, Dr Nubia Muñoz, therefore suggested that the public health benefit of vaccinating the older age group could potentially be less cost-effective than vaccinating teenagers who were less likely to have been sexually active.

Currently teenage girls aged 12 to 13 in England are offered the HPV vaccine Cervarix on the NHS.  This vaccine protects against strains 16 and 18 of HPV.

However, the Lancet report did find that even women who were infected with one strain of HPV, were potentially protected by the vaccine from other strains