Researchers said the results, published in the British Journal of Cancer, were “striking” considering recent publicity over the development of a HPV vaccine.

Experts said the public needed to be better informed before widespread vaccination was introduced.

There are over 100 different types of HPV and they are the most common sexually transmitted disease.

Around 80% of sexually active women can expect to have an HPV infection at some point in their lives.

Two vaccines have been developed – Gardasil and Cervarix – which have been shown to be very effective against the strains most commonly linked with cervical cancer.

In June, government advisors recommended girls aged between 12 and 13 in the UK should be vaccinated against the HPV.

It has also been suggested that HPV testing should play a part in cervical screening.

The disease kills 1,120 women in the UK every year.

The figure, reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is mostly in line with previous assessments. “We expected the prevalence of any HPV infection would be high, and that’s what we found,” said Dr. Eileen Dunne, the lead author.

Just 3.4 percent of the women studied had infections with one of the four human papillomavirus strains that a new vaccine protects against. But that does not mean the vaccine should be written off, said Dr. Yvonne Collins, an assistant professor of gynecologic cancer at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She pointed out that that percentage represents about three million women.

The number of women with HPV strains covered by the vaccine was lower than in other estimates. The overall HPV prevalence among the youngest women studied, 14- to 24-year-olds, was substantially higher than in previous estimates, 7.5 million versus 4.6 million.

Women ages 20 to 24 had the highest overall HPV prevalence in the study, 44.8 percent. Prevalence increased each year from ages 14 to 24, then dropped off gradually, confirming that young, sexually active women face the greatest risk.

The report is to appear on Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The public outcry that caused Merck to announce its stop order on Tuesday stems from the fact that the vaccine protects against the sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes cervical cancer. School-mandated vaccines are typically for diseases spread through casual contact, such as measles and mumps.

Merck’s medical director for vaccines, Dr. Richard M. Haupt says, “We’re concerned that our role in supporting school requirements is a distraction from that goal, and as such have suspended our lobbying efforts,” adding that the company will continue providing information about the vaccine upon request.

Gardasil, launched in June and the first vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, has inspired controversy since day one. There’s the cost — $360 for three required shots — and all sorts of insurance concerns and conservative groups who worry the vaccine encourages premarital sex and interferes with parental rights. Even those in support of the vaccine — like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Practitioners — question Merck’s quick push to market this drug, especially in light of the company’s withdrawn painkiller Vioxx.

“I believe that their timing was a little bit premature so soon after (Gardasil’s) release, before we have a picture of whether there are going to be any untoward side effects,” says Dr. Anne Francis, who chairs an American Academy of Pediatrics committee.

Legislatures in 20 states have taken steps to mandate the vaccine for young girls. And with the exception of Texas governor Rick Perry’s February 2 executive order requiring Texas girls entering the sixth grade in 2008 get vaccinated, nothing has been made official so far.

HPV is a sexually transmitted virus and requiring 11-year-olds to be vaccinated the same way they get shots for measles and other diseases is jarring. Add to that the political intrigue: It turns out that Mr. Perry’s former chief of staff is a lobbyist for Merck & Co., the only manufacturer of the drug that has been shown to prevent the virus — Gardasil.

Do pre-teen girls to have this vaccine promote premarital sex?

Conservative groups think inoculating little girls against sexually transmitted disease is a tacit acceptance — or encouragement — of immoral behavior. But right-wingers aren’t the only ones concerned.

The jury is still out on this drug’s long-term effectiveness. And there have been some negative reactions reported. Plus, Merck & Co. is spending millions of dollars to market the drug and their political ties run deep in almost every state. Florida, by the way, is not immune. There are efforts to get a mandatory vaccination legislation pitched in Tallahassee.

Obviously, curing cancer in all of its forms ought to be the goal of modern medicine. But is it medical science, or politics and slick marketing, that’s driving this push for HPV vaccinations?

Meanwhile Governor Rick Perry revealed that his call to vaccinate school aged girls against HPV is more personal than political. In a Perry scheduled interview with five reporters, the Texas Governor revealed that prostate cancer runs in his family, and some personal information about his family member’s experiences with cancer. “Every generation of Perry’s, back to the 1850s, has died of prostate cancer. I’m going to get it,” said Perry.

Texas is the first state to require that young schoolgirls receive the cervical cancer vaccine, approved for use by the FDA in June and proven to protect against the most common strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) — the cause of most cervical cases cervical cancers.

Texas governor Rick Perry (R), who just signed an executive order making this mandate official, believes the high cost of treating diseases and ensuring the health and well-being of our population justifies the vaccine requirement.

Gardasil drugmaker Merck stands to make billions if the vaccine is made mandatory across the country. The series of three necessary shots cost $360.

Comparisons of cervical cancer statistics for the years 1998 through 2005 show incidences of the disease tripling during this span of time. So acquisition of the vaccine is a true blessing for the women of this country.

“We are proud to have placed the UAE on the map with leading countries such as the US, Australia and EU by approving Gardasil, the first breakthrough vaccine that prevents the cancer,” said Dr Wisam Haddadin, Franchise Manager, Gulf Region, Merck Sharp & Dohme.

Gardasil, distributed by Merck, Sharp, & Dohme, is now available in more than 33 countries for the prevention of cervical cancer, most commonly caused by HPV (human papilloma virus). About 2.3 million women are currently diagnosed with cervical cancer worldwide. About 800 women die of the disease every day.

Australia had recently been in talks with distributor CSL Ltd. to bring down the price. The company readily agreed to cut down the prices by 27 percent.

PM Howard further added “Gardasil will be available for a nationwide vaccination campaign commencing next year. This remarkable Australian drug can be made cheaply available to women.”

Australia is all geared up to launch this unique wonder vaccine, free of cost for women aged between 12 and 26.

Smoking and the human papilloma virus (HPV) have been linked to cervical cancer before. But the new study is the first to look at a possible interplay between heavy smoking and virus levels, said study author Anthony Gunnell, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

“The risk for developing pre-malignant cervical cancer increases as HPV load increases,” Gunnell said. “Importantly though, it increases more with increasing HPV (levels) if you smoke than if you don’t.”

In the new study, Gunnell and colleagues looked at the medical records of 738 women, including 375 with signs of precancerous cervical lesions and 363 healthy women. The researchers found the subjects by looking through a database of 146,104 women who underwent cervical screening in a region of Sweden between 1969 and 1995.

The American Cancer Society estimates that about 9,710 cases of cervical cancer will be diagnosed in the United States this year, and 3,700 will die.

However, the number of deaths dropped by 74 percent between 1955 and 1992, mostly because of the growing popularity of Pap tests that detect possible signs of cancer. Now, there is a vaccine available to prevent HPV infection and most cases of cervical cancer.

Scientists think a huge number of cervical cancer cases are caused by HPV, which may be the most common sexually transmitted disease. HPV seems to boost the risk of cancer by causing inflammation.

The research was supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Swedish Cancer Society and the Danish National Research Foundation.

Government public health authorities in the United States have only recently begun recommending a vaccine against HPV for adolescent girls and young women in an effort to protect them from cervical cancer in the future.

Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths worldwide, and death rates are particularly high in developing countries.

The findings are published in the November issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

“Our study would imply a synergistic action between HPV and smoking that would greatly increase the likelihood of women developing cervical cancer if they are HPV-positive smokers,” said Anthony Gunnell, a medical biostatistician at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and lead author of the report published Friday in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 9,700 women will be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year, and that more than a third of those cases will be fatal. Cervical cancer is second only to breast cancer in the number of diagnoses made every year. The vaccine, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June, was shown to be 100 percent effective against HPV.

Doctors say it works best if administered before girls are sexually active.

The course of three injections costs 450 U.S. dollars and has not yet been approved for inclusion in the government-funded schedule of childhood vaccinations. It is designed to prevent cervical cancer caused by certain types of the sexually transmitted Papillomavirus. Gardasil, the first vaccine against cervical cancer, is considered to be highly effective against four types of the human papilloma virus, including two that cause about 70 percent of cervical cancers. On an average, around 180 New Zealand women are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and one third of them succumbs to the cancer.

The fact that Gardasil is available for girls as young as nine has caused controversy in Australia and America with politicians calling for a debate on its social implications.