The HPV vaccine is very safe and highly effective at preventing cervical cancer, according to two large reviews that support routinely vaccinating adolescents against human papillomavirus.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and can cause genital warts. Merck’s Gardasil vaccine, the first version of which was approved in 2006 , protects against nine cancer-causing HPV strains.

Nearly 60 randomized controlled clinical trials involving 160,000 participants, considered the gold-standard of scientific research, indicated that HPV vaccination is effective at preventing infection, as well as precancerous cervical lesions and genital warts. The two papers, published recently by Britain’s widely respected Cochrane Review team, also included 225 observational studies of

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