The Lancet
Dec 12, 2009  Volume 374  Number 9706  Pages 1945 – 2026
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/issue/current

Comment
Global access to HPV vaccination: what are we waiting for?
Gary M Clifford

Vaccines have repeatedly proven successful in the fight against infectious diseases, bringing some equity in health care to even the least developed regions of the world. Therefore the hope is that newly licensed human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines will have an effect on the estimated 0·5 million cases of cervical cancer that arise worldwide every year, including the 80% that occur in developing countries (figure).1,2 From extrapolation of the impressive efficacy against high-grade precancerous lesions in large phase 3 trials,3,4 vaccination of girls before they reach adolescence against HPV types 16 and 18 (HPV 16/18) would be cost effective in the prevention of cervical cancer in even the poorest countries, provided the cost of vaccination falls to US$10.