Medical experts say there is no reason for parents to be concerned about having their daughters immunised against the virus which causes cervical cancer after a leading United States presidential candidate linked the vaccine Gardasil to ''mental retardation''.
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US Republican Party presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann this week attacked fellow Republican and Texas Governor Rick Perry for signing an executive order requiring schoolgirls in his state to be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus. The order was later overturned.
After raising the issue in a Republican candidates debate, Ms Bachmann questioned the safety of the vaccine during a television interview.
''I will tell you that I had a mother last night come up to me here in Tampa, Florida, after the debate and tell me that her little daughter took that vaccine, that injection, and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter,'' she said.
''It can have very dangerous side effects.''
Cancer Council Australia chief Ian Olver said the vaccine was safe and could reduce the number of cervical cancers in Australia.
''The safety now that we've had millions of doses given is pretty much beyond doubt,'' he said.
''In Australia, of course with the pap smear program, we do very well in that our incidents of cancer of the cervix is shown to about 740 people per year and just over 200 die, which is incredibly low compared to the rest of the world.
''And if we start impacting on that with a vaccine it'll be down to minuscule levels.''
More than 6.2million doses of Gardasil have been distributed in Australia 2006.
A Department of Health and Ageing spokeswoman said 1767 suspected adverse reactions had been reported with symptoms such as headaches or feeling dizzy - but these symptoms were also common in people of the same age who had not received the vaccine.
''The pattern of adverse events has not altered since last year and no safety signals have been detected,'' the spokeswoman said.
A national program provides three doses of HPV vaccine for all 12- and 13-year-old girls.
Professor Olver said about 83 per cent of young women in the target age range had the first dose but only 73 per cent completed the course.
He said it was important that women who had received the vaccine still had regular pap smears.
''This is a vaccine against the two strains against HPV which are responsible for 70per cent of cancer of the cervix,'' he said.
Professor Olver said in the future a combination of vaccination and testing for the presence of HPV would make it possible for many women to forgo pap smears.
''It might be more efficient to test for the presence of the HPV virus, and if they don't have it, they're not going to get cancer of the cervix,'' he said.
''So you may be able to test say every five years for the virus and test women with a pap smear if they've got the virus.''
