This article shows how infections cause about 13% of cancers and highlights the dramatic success of the HPV vaccine in preventing cervical cancer, with studies reporting at least an 80% reduction in risk. It reviews population data from the UK, Australia and South Africa, and calls for broader global rollout to save millions of lives.

• HPV vaccination in girls aged 9-14 leads to at least an 80% drop in pre-cancerous cervical lesions, with England data showing much lower cervical cancer rates in those vaccinated at 12-14 versus later or unvaccinated cohorts.
• Australia's national HPV vaccination program could push cervical cancer toward elimination, and even in South Africa, where HIV complicates HPV progression, two-dose regimens cut infections by roughly 80% regardless of HIV status.
• Cervical cancer kills 370,000 women a year out of 600,000-1,000,000 diagnoses, and scaling up existing vaccines and screening to low- and middle-income countries could prevent hundreds of thousands of these deaths annually.
• Infections cause about 13% of cancers overall, as shown by H. pylori's role in stomach cancer, where reduced infection rates have cut stomach cancer deaths by 60% globally (70% in Japan).