Bid to eradicate cervical cancer

Australia is on track to become the first country in the world to all but eliminate cervical cancer, the fourth most common cancer worldwide for women.

It is due to become a rare disease in Australia within two years and so uncommon by 2028 that it will be deemed banished as a public health problem.

The forecast is contained in research published in The Lancet Public Health Journal. The achievement was attributed to the introduction ten years ago of a national vaccination programme for all children for human papillomavirus (HPV) and the launch of a national cervical smear test initiative in 1991.

The free vaccination programme was rolled out for schoolgirls aged 12 and 13 in 2007. Given that men can spread the HPV virus and can also be affected by it, the scheme was broadened in 2013 to include schoolboys aged 12 and 13.

The majority of cervical cancers (99.7 per cent) are caused by persistent HPV infection, which causes changes to cells in the cervix. HPV is an extremely common virus, with about four in five people exposed to it. Anyone who is sexually active can be infected at some time but the immune system will usually combat it successfully. Since 1991, cervical cancer rates in Australian women have halved because abnormalities have been identified before they develop.

The incidence of cervical cancer in Australia now stands at seven cases per 100,000 women, about half the global average. By contrast, incidence rates in the UK are projected to rise by 43 per cent between 2014 and 2035, to 17 cases per 100,000 women by 2035.

Ian Frazer, the Scottish Nobel prize-winner who is based in

Australia, is the joint inventor of the HPV vaccine. He said that he expected that in time cervical cancer would be completely eliminated first in Australia and then across the world.

‘‘Because this human papillomavirus only infects humans and the vaccine programme prevents the spread of the virus, eventually we’ll get rid of it, like we did with smallpox,’’ Frazer said.

‘‘Because this human papillomavirus only infects humans and the vaccine programme prevents the spread of the virus, eventually we’ll get rid of it, like we did with smallpox.’’ Professor Ian Frazer

‘‘It’s not going to happen in my lifetime, but it could happen in the lifetime of my kids if they go about it the right way.’’

The vaccine works by protecting recipients against the types of HPV that cause about 90 per cent of cervical cancers worldwide. It also prevents cases of genital warts, and a number of other cancers of the cervix, anus, vulva, vagina, penis and throat.