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Comment and Health

Science alone won't end cervical cancer, even though we have a vaccine

Twenty years after we developed a cervical cancer vaccine, the disease is still killing. Politics and economics got in the way, says Linda Eckert

By Dr Linda Eckert

17 January 2024

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Simone Rotella

IN 2003, those of us deeply involved in the prevention of cervical cancer heard some astonishing news. Results of a four-year, placebo-controlled trial of a prototype vaccine for a form of the virus that causes this cancer, known as HPV-16, were out. Of the 2400 participants who had the active vaccine, not one acquired an HPV-16 infection. Not one. Twelve years into my career as an obstetrician-gynaecologist, I knew I was witnessing a miracle.

Today, 20 years later, this cancer continues to kill – one woman every 2 minutes – and cases are on the rise: 604,000 in 2020, projected…

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