pared with 36 among the 5,766 who got dummy shots.
A Merck official called the 97 percent rate "real world," since patients sometimes miss or delay follow-up shots or tests. Therefore, even though the vaccine is available, some women may not get it before they contract the disease.
"I see this as a phenomenal breakthrough," said Dr. Gloria Bachmann, director of The Women's Health Institute at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.
But she added that vaccinations would have to begin early to have maximum impact. "In grammar school, middle school, high school, before girls become sexually active," she said.
Dr. Kevin Ault, a professor at Emory University, told CNN, "We are talking about maybe a generation or two of women to receive this vaccine before we get to no more pap smears. I guess the best example I could give you would be German measles... That vaccine became available in the late '60s in the United States, and it was just last year that our colleagues at the CDC reported that there were no cases of congenital rubella in the United States."
Numerous health officials warned that women will still need to have reular checkups and pap smears.
NBC News has reported that some religious groups fear that the availability of a cervical cancer vaccine will lessen the worry of contracting the disease and lead to increased sexual activity.
Cervical cancer is the second-most common cancer in women and their No. 2 cause of 上一页 [1] [2] [3] 下一页 |
[