A study by a team of researchers from The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre, to be published in the journal Pediatrics, has revealed that teenagers previously unvaccinated for cervical cancer have got huge benefits from the jab.

Two studies had been conducted by the team, which have shown that not only those who were vaccinated before a sexual contact benefitted from a cervical cancer jab, but those who did not receive one also.

A total of 368 young women of ages 13 to 16 years from the city of Cincinnati were recruited by the team in the 2006 and 2007 study. These participants were not vaccinated though they had a sexual act.

Following but unlike the same, another study was conducted with an enrolment of 409 women of same age group, most of whom had taken a dose of the vaccine before a contact.

Comparison of the two led the team to discover that while there was a 69% fall in the rates of HPV amongst vaccinated participants, unvaccinated had also shown a decrease by 49%. The rates of HPV had tended to fall by 58% in total.

“The results are promising in that they suggest that vaccine introduction could substantially reduce rates of cervical cancer in this community in the future", says Dr. Jessica Kahn, a physician.