Scotland see 89% fall in cervical cancer rates

Researchers have studied 138,692 women born between 1st January 1988 and 5th June 1996 who had a recorded smear test result by the age of 20 years. They have reported in the British Medical Journal that vaccinated women born in 1995 and 1996 showed an 89% reduction in prevalent cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade three or worse, an 88% reduction in grade two or worse and a 79% reduction in grade one cancer cases in Scotland, compared with unvaccinated women born in 1988. They attribute this to the human papillomavirus vaccination administered to 12 and 13 year old girls.
Medical director of Australia’s National HPV Vaccination Program Register at VCS Foundation, Julia Brotherton, said: “We must work towards a world in which all girls and their families are offered, and the majority accept, HPV vaccination, wherever they live. We must also actively develop, resource, and scale up more effective, feasible and culturally acceptable strategies for cervical screening, such as self-collection of specimens, if we are ever to effectively reduce the global burden of cervical cancer.”