NEW DELHI: Cervical cancer, one of the most potent killers affecting women, has finally met its match. Vaccines will allow women to gird themselves to face the onslaught of this silent menace. Quite a far cry from present-day solutions to this cancer-painful surgery, sapping chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Two drug companies are involved in marketing the vaccine. Merck & Co got FDA approval for the vaccine this year; GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is continuing with trials. "We're in the process of getting FDA approvals and have submitted files to the European Regulatory Authority too. We expect approvals soon," says a GSK spokesperson.

India is home to one-fourth of the world's cervical cancer cases, the second-most common cancer striking women. Among some 1.26 lakh Indian cases, 72,000 die from it annually. US has around 10,000 cases annually.

The three-shot vaccine which protects women against the Human Papilloma Virus, (HPV), a sexually-transmitted infection, was developed by Professor Ian Frazer of Australia. Unfortunately, the early stages of cervical cancer are asymptomatic. By the time symptoms such as bleeding occur, it's late. Multiple sexual partners, malnutrition and poor hygiene can cause the infection. "A majority of women who are sexually-active could get HPV, but it would be harmless. Some 10% of these will have persistent infection and of these, a fraction would develop cancers of the cervix ," says Dr Neerja Bhatla, additional professor, obstetrics and gynaecology, AIIMS.

While global trials have been on for the last five years, those in India began a few months back.

Though the virus is also carried by men, women are more predisposed to it as the cervix is a vulnerable zone which undergoes changes on contact with the virus.

The best age to get vaccinated would be just before puberty: before a person becomes sexually-active. However, it'll be a long time before the efficacy of this vaccine is known. Experts expect the effects of the vaccine to last about four years after initial vaccination. 'These vaccines mainly protect against HPV strains 16 and 18," says Bhatla. "This is more a preventive vaccine than a therapeutic one. India is trying to produce an indigenous vaccine."

The best way to detect this cancer is to have a Pap smear done and take this vaccine. "This will reduce cervical cancer screening from once a year to once in five years." Health professionals abroad want this vaccine to be part of their national immunisation programmes.