Professor Henry Kitchener:

The purpose of vaccination is to provide what one might term primary infection. In other words, we are preventing women from acquiring the very viral infection that is responsible for the disease. It is hoped a high level of coverage will be achieved. Primary vaccination does not cover, or is not capable of preventing, every case of cervical cancer. This is why there is still a need at the moment for what we might call secondary prevention. This is where HPV testing and cytology - at the moment it is cytology alone - comes in. This is the means of picking up abnormalities at an early stage such that they can be easily treated. The two public health measures are entirely complementary.