Vaccination against HPV drastically reduces the number of cases of invasive cervical cancer, according to new analysis by Public Health Scotland, which was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
The main conclusions:
The analysis included data on women in Scotland born between 1988 and 1996, drawn from the cervical cancer screening programme, cancer, immunization and background registers. The incidence of invasive cervical cancer per 100,000 person-years and the effectiveness of vaccination were correlated with vaccination status, age of vaccination and the environment of origin.
Dr. Marius Geantă, President of the Centre for Innovation in Medicine and one of the key experts involved in ReThinkHPVaccination, commented on the results of the study in the podcast show Science 360, from Radio Romania Cultural:
"The news is a model of what innovation can really mean, consistency in the implementation of public health interventions and how that shows up in statistics. […] If we look at the reality in Romania, we will find that most people with responsibilities in this area have not done their job.
I would be ashamed if I were them to read this kind of information that tells us the following: in 2008, every country in the world was starting from the same point - no other country had run any kind of HPV vaccination campaign before for the simple reason that the vaccine does not exist. What made the difference was, in the first phase, the inspirational part - we have a very powerful tool with which we want to solve this problem - the confidence in the science and the ability to implement such a program for a long period of time. Now we're seeing the results, we've seen in Australia over time, UK data, it's all going in the same direction.
The study shows that regardless of the number of doses given and the type of vaccine, there were no deaths in the vaccinated people. The optimal age seems to be 12-13 years. Of course, the benefits of vaccination are also seen if the person is vaccinated later, 14-22 years, the study cites. There are also benefits if the vaccination is done when the woman is an adult. This is why it is so important to capture this moment and target that population. There is another important message, namely that women from disadvantaged areas have benefited the most from vaccination."
Marius Geantă. Full article: Podcast #Ştiința360. Dr. Marius Geantă - ZERO cazuri de cancer de col uterin la femeile vaccinate împotriva HPV
