Effectiveness and impact of vaccines against human papillomavirus

Abstract Cervical cancer is a worldwide important public health problem. The infection by human papillomavirus (HPV) is causally related to almost every case of cervical cancer; also to a certain amount of other cancers of the genital, anal and nasopharyngeal mucosa, and almost all genital warts. The development of two vaccines against the infection by HPV opens the possibility of preventing these conditions; both vaccines contain HPV serotypes 16 and 18, responsible of, at least, 70% of cervical cancers. Besides, the tetravalent vaccine contains the HPV serotypes 6 and 11, responsible of, at least, 90% of genital warts. Data available seem to point to a high protective effect against precancerous lesions in young women in studies after five years of follow up; the tetravalent vaccine also gives effective protection against genital warts. Nevertheless, there still remain many aspects to be explained related to the real effectiveness and cost-benefit of these vaccines. Key words: Uterine cervix cancer, Human papillomavirus, Vaccines, Systematic vaccines, Vaccination effectiveness.