If you could take a vaccine that would protect you against cancer, wouldn't you take it? Well, for cervical cancer, there is a vaccine. It protects against a virus called HPV, which can lead to cancer of the cervix. But a new study reports that many women say no to the vaccine.
如果有一种预防癌症的疫苗，你会接种它吗？目前有宫颈癌疫苗。这种疫苗对抗会导致宫颈癌的人乳头状瘤病毒。但是，一项新的研究发现，很多妇女拒绝接种这种疫苗。
Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women, according to the World Health Organization.
世界卫生组织说，宫颈癌是女性最常见的癌症。
It's responsible for more than a quarter-million deaths each year - 85 percent of them in developing countries. Scientists have found that cervical cancer is caused by a sexually-transmitted microbe called HPV, the human papillomavirus, said University of Maryland researcher Kathleen Tracy.
每年导致25万多人死亡，其中百分之85是在发展中国家。
"The human papillomavirus is actually a family of viruses that cause everything from common skin warts to genital warts, and then certain strains of it actually can lead to cervical cancer."
特雷西说：“人类乳头状瘤病毒实际上是一类病毒的总称，它能引起各种问题，从皮肤上长疣，到生殖器长疣，其中某些病毒会导致宫颈癌。”
Until a few years ago, the best defense was a pap smear to detect and treat precancerous cells. But giving susceptible women the annual test can be difficult to manage, especially in resource-poor areas.
一直到几年以前，最好的办法就是利用子宫颈抹片检查，来发现和治疗癌前细胞。但是对于风险高的妇女来说，这种每年一次的检查，特别在资源不足的地区，可能难于实行。
A vaccine against HPV, which was introduced a few years ago, would seem a much better solution, but only if women get vaccinated.
几年前研发出来的一种抗人类乳头状瘤病毒的疫苗似乎是好得多的防治办法。但前提是必须接种这种疫苗。
To see if that was happening, Tracy and her colleagues reviewed medical records of about 10,000 females, ages 9 to 26, at the University of Maryland's medical center in Baltimore who were eligible to get HPV vaccination.
为了了解接种情况，特雷西和她的同事们在巴尔的摩市马里兰大学医学中心查阅了大约1万名9岁至26岁女病人的病例。这些病人都符合接种HPV疫苗。
They found that only about 27 percent got vaccinated. The hospital records don't say why three-quarters of the young women chose not to get the vaccine, but Tracy has some educated guesses, based on the short time the vaccine has been on the market.
他们发现，只有百分之27的病人接种了疫苗。医院的病历资料中没有说明，为什么其他百分之73的病人没有接种。特雷西根据疫苗上市时间还太短这个事实，做出了一些合理猜测。
"It's only been licensed for use in the U.S. since 2006. So I think there's probably a significant number of people who are sitting back and waiting to see how effective is it, what are the major side effects, is it going to come down in price - it's not an inexpensive vaccine," she explained in a telephone interview from the annual research conference of the American Association for Cancer Research, where she presented her study.
她说：“这种疫苗2006年才被核准使用。所以我想，可能还有很多人在采取观望态度，想看看它的效果如何，主要副作用是什么，价格会不会降下来，等等，这可不是一种价格低廉的疫苗。”
Less than one-third of the 27 percent who got the vaccine, got the full series of three doses. Tracy says choosing to get or not get the vaccine is a matter of choice. But "when I see that people are choosing to get it but aren't following through with the dose, it worries me," she said. "That means there are large numbers of women that are unprotected or underprotected, and that's the group that we need to reach."
在百分之27的接种了疫苗的人当中，按要求接种完三剂疫苗的还不到三分之一。特雷西说，是不使接种这种疫苗，是个人的选择。不过她说：“我看见有人选择接种，却又不依照规定接种完三剂，我就感到担心。因为这意味着，很多妇女不是未受保护，就是没有受到充分的保护。我们应该找到这些人。”
Technology might provide an answer, and Tracy and her colleagues are preparing a new study to see if a week's worth of daily text (SMS) messages might be a more effective way to get women who start the HPV vaccine to get all three shots.
也许可以求助于技术。特雷西和她的同事准备进行一项新的研究，希望看看连发一个星期的短信，能否产生效果，让开始接种疫苗的人坚持把三剂疫苗接种完毕。 |