• Question: Do the hpv vaccines for cervical cancer work?

    Asked by sophie12 to Andrew, Daniel, Hayley, Natalia, Peta on 21 Nov 2011. This question was also asked by amyhoughton.
    • Photo: Peta Foster

      Peta Foster answered on 21 Nov 2011:

      I believe it to be highly successful and well worth doing. Cervical cancer without the virus is much much less common.

    • Photo: Daniel Scully

      Daniel Scully answered on 21 Nov 2011:

      Yep. Vaccines cost governments a lot of money so they only do them when they are worthwhile.

      We’re really lucky we live in a world where we can afford these things.

    • Photo: Hayley Smith

      Hayley Smith answered on 21 Nov 2011:

      I don’t think we’ll know any significant results for a little while to come, will we? I was under the impression the vaccination program has just about caught up with it’s targetted people but from what I’d read I didn’t think (on average) you’d be able to tell if it was massively successful yet or not?
      Maybe I’m misunderstood…
      Whether vaccinated or not, I believe the message from doctors is still to be screened for cervical cancer when required.

Comments

  • Photo: Daniel

    Daniel commented on :

    Hmmm… Hayley’s comments prompted me to glance over the Wikipedia page.

    It seems like the vaccine has been shown to be effective for at least 4-6 years, but the full effectiveness of it will not be seen until after a large scale vaccination effort (as Hayely said.)

  • Photo: yazy

    yazy commented on :

    would boys need the vaccination as well as girls?? xx im scared for mine to be done.

  • Photo: Daniel

    Daniel commented on :

    Hi @yazy,

    Take a look at this page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hpv_vaccine) and scroll down a bit. There’s a chart showing how many cases of different cancers are believed to be attributable to HPV.

    You can see there that although there might be a small benefit for boys, it is the very high cause of cervical cancers that make it much more important for girls.

    Try not to worry about your vaccination, it’s a lot better than getting cancer!