According to Chinese media, four hospitals in China will soon start a clinical study and tests on the vaccine for cervical cancer which is expected to be put into service in the country in five years.

The four hospitals, including the Maternity Hospital Affiliated to Zhejiang University which is reportedly preparing for the clinical study of cervical cancer vaccine and to be recruiting healthy women to take part in the test across the province, are rushing to get for the test work.

It is reported that the test will be carried out using Human Papillomavirus Virus-Like Particle vaccine, a drug that was developed by Merck & Co., Inc in the USA, and which has been proved safe and effective and is widely used in 107 countries and regions across the world. Half of the volunteers will be inoculated with the vaccine at the beginning of the program, while the rest will first be given a placebo and then will be inoculated when the vaccine is formally launched. After the first inoculation, the volunteers will then be vaccinated in the second and sixth months. Participating women will be inoculated free of charge and will have regular checkups. For safety they will be visited periodically and checked for any bad effects from the vaccine.

The test will commence in March and last about 30 months. If the participating women have no HPV infection, the vaccine will be formally launched in five years.

It is understood that there are about 460,000 new cervical cancer patients each year, and about one quarter of them come from China.

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