In June 2006, Merck’s drug Gardasil was approved by the FDA. Gardasil is a drug designed to protect women from developing cervical cancer, as the latter has been shown to be caused in 70% of the cases by HPV – the human papilloma virus. More precisely, Gardasil is a vaccine administered to teenage girls and young women as protection against four strains of the HPV.

Beside Gardasil, two more vaccines have been designed and approved for adolescents as a means of protection against HPV since 2005. Also, a vaccine for the prevention of chicken pox has been created and approved by the FDA, and this vaccine, designed for adolescents as well, has a high dosage of varicella.

Gardasil is a drug administered in a series of three doses. Ideally, it has to be administered to girls aged 11 and 12, before they become sexually active. In 2007, a survey showed that at least one dose of Gardasil was administered to one quarter of teenage girls in the U.S. The survey also provided a primary national estimate of the vaccine’s use. The purpose of the survey was to establish how many girls, ranging from 13-to-17 year olds, were administered the vaccine.

Health officials were ecstatic about the amount of girls who were given the vaccine. They said that a 25% coverage of a new vaccine which fights again a condition seldom approached before is excellent and possibly unprecedented.

The survey was extended to a few more vaccines and drugs designed to prevent, rather than cure, which is the direction medicine seems to be heading to. There is no surprise factor given that one of the oldest saying is “Prevention is better than cure.” Vaccines against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis have shown an increased usage rate, and the vaccine to protect meningitis was administered to 32.4% of teenagers in 2007, as opposed to 11.7% in 2006.