The HPV vaccine is highly effective at preventing cervical cancer and does not come with serious side effects, according to two sweeping new reviews that offer some of the most comprehensive data yet on the jab.

Girls aged 16 or younger who received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine were 80 per cent less likely to develop cervical cancer than unvaccinated girls, the analyses found.

The jab also prevented precancerous changes in the cervix and other tissue, especially when young people received it before they were exposed to the virus.

The reviews were carried outby Cochrane, an influential nonprofit research group. They included both clinical trials and real-world studies involving more than 132 million people.

“We now have clear and consistent evidence from around the world that HPV vaccination prevents cervical cancer,” Nicholas Henschke, one of the study’s authors and head of Cochrane Response, said in a statement.