Does the invention of Gardasil make Pap tests obsolete?
Many women may wish this were true, but Gardasil doesn’t replace an annual Pap test. Women who have been vaccinated with Gardasil should still receive regular Pap tests and continue to be screened for cervical cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. Here’s why:The vaccine protects against HPV types 16 and 18, strains are responsible for most—but not all—of the cervical cancer cases. About 30 percent of the time, an entirely different high-risk strain (such as HPV type 31 or 45) causes the cancer. Also, the vaccine doesn’t work retroactively; if a woman is sexually active and exposed to HPV type 16 or 18 (or both) before immunization, she won’t be protected from these strains upon vaccination.
