A new vaccine has cut rates of infection with a cancer-causing virus by two thirds among teenage girls, researchers report today.
Girls in the UK are now offered the HPV vaccine when they reach the age of 12.
HPV – the human papillomavirus – has been linked to the development of cervical cancer.
A new study finds this has reduced the proportion of sexually active girls infected with HPV to 6%.
This compares with 20% before the introduction of the vaccine, the Society for General Microbiology conference in Liverpool, UK, was being told.
The findings come from a study of more than 4,000 young women undertaken twice, once in 2010 and once in 2012.
David Mesher, of Public Health England, said: "These data adds to our confidence that the HPV immunisation programme will achieve its aim of reducing cervical cancer.
"This study provides an early indication that the national HPV immunisation programme is successfully reducing vaccine-type HPV infections in sexually active young women in England, and also suggests herd-immunity may be benefiting non-vaccinated young women and men.
“The data provide reassurance that the high efficacy against HPV infection in women reported in clinical trials can be effectively realised in practice, and in a programme achieving high coverage amongst young females."
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