HPV Vaccine

The HPV vaccines Cervarix and Gardasil are now available in Jamaica. Most Gynaecologists, Family Doctors and Paediatricians have them available. They are both highly effective in preventing pre-cancerous lesions of the cervix and cervical cancer. Cervarix is indicated for women ages 9 to 55 years and Gardasil age 9 to 26 years. They also protect against genital warts.

What is HPV?

HPV is the Human Papilloma Virus. It is a sexually transmitted infection. There are many strains of this virus (over 100). Each strain is given a number eg. HPV 6 or HPV 45. HPV has high risk types such as HPV 16, 18, 45, these are more likely to cause cervical cancer, and also anal, penile (cancer of the penis), oral cancer, throat cancer. HPV 6 and 11 are low risk types and cause genital warts.
HPV is extremely common as much as 85% of people are exposed to the virus, but only few develop the warts and even fewer the cancers.

In Jamaica Cervical cancer is a big problem. It is the commonest cancer of the female genital tract in Jamaica. Gardasil is designed against HPV 6, 11, 16 and 18. Cervarix against HPV 6, 11. Both are highly effective in preventing cervical cancer caused by HPV 16 and 18 and also provide protection against other strains of the virus. These studies show that over 90% of patients did not develop precancerous lesions or cancer!! It is still important to do your annual pap smears. There are some intricate differences between each vaccine so ask your doctor about them. Even if you already had a previous pre-cancerous lesion and this was treated and cleared up, the vaccines have still been shown to be beneficial in most cases!