The Know Daily - Tuesday 23 January 2024

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The winning images from the latest Travel Photographer of the Year competition have been announced - and they’ve sparked some serious wanderlust. Slovenian photographer AndreJa Ravnak took the top prize with her work illustrating rolling fields in Italy 👇 and the Czech Republic, but the other finalists are well worth checking out, too. 

👏 Eliminating cervical cancer 

No cervical cancer cases have been detected among young Scottish women who were fully vaccinated against HPV as part of the nationwide immunisation programme in schools.

Wait - no cases at all?
Yep! The research by Public Health Scotland found that “not a single young woman” who had received the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine at the age of 12 or 13 had gone on to have cervical cancer diagnosed, said The Times.

This sounds like pretty fantastic news?
You bet. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer in women worldwide - and nearly all cervical cancers (99.7%) are caused by an infection from a high-risk strain of HPV. 

While many women will be infected with HPV over the course of their lifetime “without any ill-effect”, some strains are linked to the development of certain cancers, explained the BBC. 

In 2008, the HPV immunisation programme was introduced for girls in secondary schools. Boys are now also offered the vaccine, the BBC pointed out, as it helps protect them from “other HPV-related cancers” later in life.

What else should we take away from this?
While this latest research shows just how effective the HPV vaccine is, experts have stressed the importance of continuing to attend cervical screenings - especially as the HPV jabs cannot protect against all strains of the virus.

About 5,000 lives are saved each year thanks to screenings, said Sky News, but nearly one in three people with a cervix don’t take up the offer.

In November last year, the head of NHS England said that cervical cancer can be eliminated in England by 2040 through a combination of HPV vaccination and screenings.