1 in 4 U.S. Women Carries Cervical Cancer Virus

(Page 3)

"We're certainly not saying, 'Go out and have sex now that you have the vaccine,' " Wu said. "We are just thinking that, 'OK, these women may or may not have more than one sexual partner, and this might help protect them.' "

The Gardasil controversy was revived again last week when a report presented to the CDC listed about 500 cases of side effects linked to the vaccine.

However, "those side effects have been relatively mild and within the expected range," said CDC spokesman Curtis Allen. Most involved events such as transient dizziness, injection-site swelling, fainting, fever or nausea -- common to many injections, Allen said.

And, while there were a few cases of a rare, dangerous condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome, the incidence was similar to that seen in unvaccinated girls. "So, there doesn't seem to be anything that would cause alarm," Allen said.

Wu agreed. "At this point in time, we still think the benefits [of vaccination] outweigh the risks," she said. "We think that with widespread immunization, we could essentially eliminate cervical cancer."

Dunne stressed that because the CDC survey is the first such study of HPV incidence for a wide age range of American women, it's not yet possible to determine whether rates of infection are rising or falling.

"We won't have any data for a while as to trends," she said. "We are hoping that we can continue the surveillance of HPV infection in the U.S. female population."

In the meantime, another expert said it remains important that women of all ages get a regular Pap smear to check for the early signs of cervical cancer -- even if they receive the Gardasil vaccine.

"Women who are vaccinated for HPV would still need to get Pap smears according to regular clinical guidelines, since there are still some types of HPV not covered by the vaccine that are oncogenic," explained Susan Weller, co-author of a related editorial in JAMA and a professor of family medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.

According to the American Cancer Society, more than 11,150 new cases of invasive cervical cancer will be diagnosed in U.S. women this year, and about 3,670 women will die of the disease.

More information

There's more on HPV and cervical cancer at the American Cancer Society.