1 out of 4 women has cancer virus

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One of every four American women between 14 and 59 years old is infected with the sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer, the government said Tuesday in the first broad national estimate of the prevalence of HPV. The highest prevalence -- nearly 45 percent -- was found in young women within the age range recommended for a new virus-fighting vaccine, according to a report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers have estimated that 20 million Americans have some form of HPV, or human papilloma virus. The study concluded that 26.8 percent of women in the United States are infected. That's in line with earlier estimates that extrapolated from smaller groups. ''We expected the prevalence of any HPV infection would be high, and that's what we found,'' said Dr. Eileen Dunne, the study's lead author. Only 3.4 percent of the women studied had infections with one of the four HPV strains that a new vaccine protects against. But that doesn't mean the vaccine should be written off, said Dr. Yvonne Collins, an assistant professor of gynecologic cancer at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Collins said that percentage corresponds to about 3 million women. About 11,150 women nationwide will be diagnosed this year with cervical cancer, and about 3,670 will die from it. The new vaccine, Gardasil, was approved last June for girls and women ages 9 to 26.