So, apparently there is a new vaccine that prevents contracting HPV. Otherwise know as genetal warts. The main cause of cervical cancer (only cause I'm aware of.) They are saying that throughout the test they carried 100% success rate with the people that were vaccined!
I would say that it's pretty impressive, not only does it stop one of the most common forms of stds. It should essentially get rid of cervical cancer which is great, needless to say. Hearsay is that it also gets rid of it if you have it (75% success rate.)
Discuss!
New Vaccine
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New Vaccine
Thinking of something new!
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common ... 61,00.html
Aussie breakthrough on cancer vaccine
A CERVICAL cancer vaccine could be available next year following an Australian breakthrough hailed as one of the biggest advances in women's health since the contraceptive pill.
Lead researcher Prof Ian Frazer, of the University of Queensland Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research, said trial results were exciting
"A vaccine's a good vaccine if it gives you 90 to 95 per cent effectiveness, but so far this has given 100 per cent, which is very encouraging," he said from New York.
Final trials of the vaccine Gardasil proved it was 100 per cent effective against the human papilloma virus (HPV) that are responsible for about 70 per cent of all cervical cancers.
Girls in upper primary school grades are expected to be among the first to receive the vaccine when it is finally approved.
Developers Melbourne-based CSL Limited and pharmaceutical company Merck and Co plan to seek approval to sell the vaccine from the US Food and Drug Administration in the next two months, and Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration early next year.
If the vaccine is approved it is expected to cost $70 to $100 for each of three doses needed for full protection and could be available next year.
CSL spokeswoman Dr Rachel David said the company planned to ask the Federal Government to include the ground-breaking vaccine in the schedule of childhood immunisations.
The prime target of the vaccine is adolescent girls not yet sexually active.
Most older women who are sexually active have been exposed to the virus.
Royal Women's Hospital director of microbiological and infectious diseases Prof Suzanne Garland said early vaccination would have tremendous benefits.
"If you can vaccinate young girls before they become sexually active, say at 10 to 12 years of age, you could prevent up to 70 per cent of cervical cancers," she said.
"For women worldwide it's a big issue because cervical cancer is the second biggest cancer in women and in the developing world it's biggest cancer in women.
"In Australia it's not as high up the list because of good Pap screening programs."
About 150 Victorian women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year.
The cancer killed 227 Australians in 2002 and about 300,000 women worldwide die from it annually.
Prof Garland said about 70 per cent of women would contract HPV, with the risk of infection rising with the number of sexual partners.
Mercy Hospital for Women gynaecological oncologist associate professor David Allen said the vaccine was a great breakthrough and joked it could put him out of a job.
"It will certainly reduce business and we are quite happy with that," he said.
"This is a very significant development and it will certainly make a big impact."
It was the pioneering work of Dr Ian Frazer that led to the vaccine development.
Speaking from New York, Dr Frazer said the wonderful results released yesterday meant there was no stumbling blocks preventing the vaccine being made available to women.
"It is very rare, almost unheard of, to achieve a 100 per cent efficacy rate in any treatment, so these results are truly wonderful," he said.
"It is the first time in the world that a vaccine designed to prevent cancer has been developed, and it has happened right here in Australia."
In 1991 Dr Frazer took the observations of German scientists that HPV seemed to be involved in cervical cancer, and went about developing a vaccine against the virus.
"Now we are working on a vaccine to treat women already infected by the virus," he said.
"Ninety-eight per cent of women who get the virus cure themselves of it. It may take up to five years but it's the two per cent of women who can't get rid of it themselves that are at risk of cancer.
"The problem is we can't pick out those two per cent in advance."
The vaccine only prevents 70 per cent of cervical cancers so women will still need to have a Pap smear every two years.
PapScreen Victoria manager Kate Broun urged women not to rely on the vaccine once it became available.
"Pap tests won't be replaced," she said.
"This won't protect women already sexually active nor does it protect against all types of HPV."
One hundred and fifty Melbourne women aged 16 to 26 at the Royal Women's Hospital were among 12,167 women from 13 countries worldwide involved in the trial.
None was forced to pull out as a result of adverse side-effects. The most serious side-effect reported was discomfort at the injection site.
Yesterday's announcement was a boon for developer CSL, with investors pushing the company's share price up 96c to $37.46.
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