Cervical cancer: Single-dose HPV vaccine ‘highly effective’

(Timothy Huzar/ Medical News Today) –– A single-dose human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine can be as effective as the three-dose regimen which is the current standard, a new study in Africa found.

The research, published in NEJM Evidence, could help speed up the rate at that women are vaccinated against the virus, reducing its effectiveness at the level of the population.

According to the World Health OrganizationTrusted Source (WHO), in 2020 342,000 women died due to cervical cancer. 90% of these deaths occurred in low- or middle-income countries.

HPV — and in particular its serotypes 16 and 18 — account for 50% of high-grade cervical pre-cancers.

Currently, women and girls can be vaccinated against HPV, but according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control(CDC), this requires a two- or three-dose regimen. (…)