The Story Behind the HPV Vaccine: It can protect young women from a cancer-causing virus.

Byline: Janice Gaston

Mar. 6--The letters HPV have flashed up frequently on TV screens and appeared in newspaper headlines, with good reason. HPV is short for human papillomavirus, a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer. The virus will affect, at some point in their lives, at least half of all people who have sex. At least 250,000 people are infected with HPV each year in the United States. Results of a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that the virus is even more prevalent than experts previously thought. The study showed that a quarter of teenage girls have been infected with HPV and nearly half of women ages 20 to 24 have been infected. The study did not include men. Two forms of the virus are responsible for about 70 percent of the cases of cervical cancer diagnosed around the world. Cervical cancer will kill more than 3,500 women in the United States this year. The virus isn't new; experts have known about it for years. Researchers have discovered more than 100 types of the virus. What is new is a vaccine that can protect women against HPV types 16 and 18, which cause 70 percent of cervical cancer, and types 6 and 11, which cause most genital…