In 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Gardasil vaccine to help protect girls and women ages 9-26 against HPV types 6, 8, 16 and 18 – the strains that can cause cervical, vaginal or vulvular cancers, and genital warts. In 2009 the FDA approved the vaccine for use in males ages 9-26 to help protect against genital warts. That same year, the FDA approved the vaccine Cervarix for use in girls and women ages 10-25 to prevent against HPV types 16 and 18, the two strains that account for about 70 percent of all cervical cancers in the United States.
When looking at specific strains of HPV, they noticed stark differences between white women and black women, with very little overlap. The most frequent HPV subtypes in white women with early or advanced precancerous cervical abnormalities were 16, 18, 33, 39, 56 and 66. In black women the most common subtypes were different: 31, 33, 35, 45, 56, 58, 66 and 68.
