A study revealed that the pseudo-particles viral vaccine, injected to prevent human papillomavirus (HPV) type-16, offers protection for 8.5 to 9.5 years in some cases.
This vaccine is called Gardasil, which is given to young women from ages 9 to 26 to prevent precancers in the cervix, vulva and vagina, and genital warts caused by the four-type HPV (6, 11, 16, and 18).
Type-16 is the virus that is most likely to cause cervical cancer.
Another study demonstrated that in women who had never been exposed to the 14 types of common HPVs, Gardasil vaccine led to a 17% reduction in the number of abnormal Pap smear tests. There was also a considerable reduction in requests for colonoscopies by 20%, cervical biopsies by 22% and operations and other treatments by 42%.
In Canada alone, nearly 400 000 Pap test results are abnormal each year.