A third of young girls get HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer

Only about one in three young women has received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to help prevent cervical cancer, according to a new report from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The HPV vaccine prevents four strains of the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, two of which are found in about 70 percent of all women with cervical cancer. But the new data shows only 34 percent of girls ages 13 to 17 were being vaccinated in six states that were surveyed.