Thursday, September 20, 2007

HPV Vaccine : Protect againest HPV that is cause 90% of cervical cancers

A new study on Gardasil sponsored by Merck who manufacture the vaccine, suggests that it protects against more types of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) than at first thought and it now offers protection against strains of HPV that cause 90 per cent of cervical cancers.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Gardasil last year as a new vaccine against cervical cancer and other diseases in females caused by HPV. This was on clinical evidence showing it protected against HPV 16 and HPV 18, that cause 70 per cent of cervical cancers, and HPV 6 and HPV 11, that cause 90 per cent of genital warts.

Now a new study of 11,000 girls and women aged from 15 to 26 found the vaccine to be 38 per cent effective against 10 further types of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that are thought to cause 20 per cent of cervical cancers.

The research is the work of Dr Darren R Brown, professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, and colleagues. It was presented at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, reported WedMD News this week.

Brown conducted another study earlier this year where he showed that Gardasil was continuing to be nearly 100 per cent effective at preventing infection by HPV 16 and HPV 18 in its post market phase.

The new findings also show that Gardasil is 45 per cent effective against HPV types 45 and 31, also linked to cervical cancer, and it is 62 per cent at preventing precancerous lesions due to these two strains.

Get more Information: Medical News Today

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