[Nathan Zachary]

No, it is not 100% effective. well, maybe it is in the people it actually works in. that number is around 80%. By all means, go read the company's literature. It does not claim to be 100, or 99% effective. In fact it says in MAY not be, and recomends that you NOT forgo regular pap smears.

What's the point of a vaccination against a relatively harmess STD then? The cure for any cancers it MAY, in rare cases cause, already exists. And you have to have it ANYWAYS. If you don't, there are 238 other strains of sexually transmitted HPV you will pass around, and which MAY, isn rare cases, cause cervical cancer IF left untreated.

[MEGoody]

No, it is not 100% effective.

Exactly. It doesn't protect all who take the vaccine, and it's not designed to protect against all forms of HPV.

[Sols]

"Sanofi Pasteur -- the Merck- and Sanofi Aventis-owned vaccine producer -- on Wednesday announced that an analysis of a Phase II clinical trial of the company's experimental human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil shows that it is effective in preventing cervical neoplasia and external lesions for five years, AFX/Euro2day reports (AFX/Euro2day, 4/26). Merck in October 2005 announced that Gardasil in clinical trials was 100% effective in preventing infection with HPV strains 16 and 18, which together cause about 70% of cervical cancer cases."

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=42307

Cancer-causing, even rarely, is not relatively harmless.