With HPV it is even more difficult, because cervical cancer takes years to develop.
The vaccines target the two HPV strains that are responsible for 75% of cervical cancers.
Even though her Pap tests had come back normal, McKinney's HPV test was positive.
Although some infections such as chlamydia are curable, others including herpes, HPV and HIV are not.
The sensitivity around the HPV vaccine comes from the fact that HPV is sexually transmitted.
In previous clinical trials, Gardasil was shown to work at preventing infection with the HPV virus.
The only approved HPV test on the market is for women, for use in cervical-cancer screening.
The human papillomavirus (HPV), is found in most women who have developed cervical cancer.
Cancers which are associated with HPV are mostly found on the tonsils and pharynx.
Five years ago, 40 percent of parents surveyed said they would not vaccinate their girls against HPV.
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The HPV test can detect an active infection with one of the high-risk strains of the virus.
Condoms don't do much to stop HPV because the virus can easily spread through incidental skin contact.
GlaxoSmithkline ( GSK - news - people ) is developing its own HPV vaccine.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 20 million Americans are infected with HPV.
But men are at risk for another cancer that is caused by HPV cancer of the tonsils.
This discovery kick-started HPV vaccine programs at drug giants such as Merck and small biotechs like Gaithersburg, Md.
At Merck, Kathrin Jansen started the HPV vaccine program and has shepherded it through eight years of development.
They found 18.8% of the examined foreskins had the low-risk HPV genotypes and 9.77% had the high-risk HPV.
Fortunately, however, the vast majority of women with the HPV virus will not develop cervical cancer at all.
There are over 100 types of HPV but only 13 of these are known to cause cervical cancer.
But a recent study found more parents are refusing to have their girls vaccinated against HPV than ever before.
FORBES: Merck & Its HPV Vaccine: Sales & Skepticism Are Both Up
Roughly three-quarters of U.S. adults have had at least one HPV infection, according to an editorial by Matthew R.
The good news is that HPV-caused tonsil cancer is less deadly than traditional forms of head and neck cancer.
But HPV is a different bug: It is the only known virus that can't be grown in tissue cultures.
The vaccine looks powerful in human tests, stimulating up to 150 times the body's normal immune response to HPV.
Gillison spent three years trying to draw Merck's attention to HPV tonsil cancer.
"The prevalence of HPV -- that's just one sexually transmitted infection, " she said.
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The proteins naturally twist themselves into particles that are indistinguishable from HPV.
As of 2010, about one-third of girls had an HPV vaccine, although this was up from 16 percent in 2008.
FORBES: Merck & Its HPV Vaccine: Sales & Skepticism Are Both Up
Merck ( MRK - news - people )'s HPV vaccine, Gardasil, now heavily promoted for cervical cancer.
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