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Australia Purging Cervical Cancer, to Eradicate Disease Soon

About 13,200 women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2018, and more than 4,100 will die of the disease. A woman dies of cervical cancer every 2 minutes. In 99.9 percent of cases, it is caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV). Thanks to a massive vaccination program targeting this common infection, HPV prevalence among Australian women aged 18 to 24 has dropped from 22.7 percent to just 1.5 percent over the last 10 years, as reported in a new study.

HPV (human papillomavirus) is a sexually transmitted infection. In 2007, the federal government began providing the vaccine for free to girls aged 12-13 years, and in 2013, it extended the program to boys. Girls and boys outside those ages but under 19 can also access two doses of the vaccine for free. In 2016, 78.6% of 15-year old girls and 72.9% of 15-year old boys had been vaccinated. As a result, the HPV rate among women aged 18 to 24 dropped from 22.7% to 1.1% between 2005 and 2015.

Australia Purging Cervical Cancer, Might be Able to Eradicate Disease Soon

Professor Garland who is the Director of the Centre for Women’s Infectious Diseases at the Royal Women’s Hospital said Australia’s high uptake of the vaccine

and high screening rates will likely result in the country being the first to effectively eliminate the disease.

In 40 years, when most Australian women will have been vaccinated for HPV in childhood and will be undergoing regular cancer screenings, it is expected that Australia will become the first country in the world to effectively eliminate cervical cancer.

We are forecasting that over the next 30-40 years, rates of cervical cancer will drop from around the current 930 cases a year in Australia to just a few,” she said. “Our national HPV immunisation program for both boys and girls, combined with our cervical cancer population screening, means we are well positioned to be the first country to effectively end this deadly cancer.

Prior to the vaccination program, almost all sexually active people had contracted HPV.

If we continue with a successful vaccination program for boys and girls and our population screening for HPV, then we can effectively eradicate this cancer. The research is showing a decline in rates of the cancer causing HPV; however due to the delay between contracting HPV and cervical cancer developing, we expect it to be a few more years before we see a steep decline in rates of cervical cancer,” Professor Garland said.

The effectiveness of the vaccine and a lower cost is likely to make it possible for us to eliminate the disease in low socio economic countries too,” Professor Garland said.

Professor Garland said high rates of screening was crucial to achieving elimination as between 10 and 30 per cent of HPV that causes cervical cancer is not covered by the vaccine.

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