Effect of Human Papillomavirus 16/18 L1 Viruslike Particle Vaccine Among Young Women With Preexisting Infection.

This article presents the results of a study which aimed to see if vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine against types 16 and 18 increases the rate of viral clearance in women already infected with HPV. The study found there was no evidence of increased viral clearance at 6 or 12 months in the group that received HPV vaccine compared with the control group. Clearance rates for HPV-16/18 infections at 6 months were 33.4 percent in the treated group and 31.6 percent in the control group. The rate of clearance climbed slightly at 12 months for both groups. There was no evidence of a therapeutic effect for women receiving all vaccine doses. The study concludes that vaccination with HPV-16/18 should not be used to treat prevalent infection.