The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has received a $7- million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate the development and introduction of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines to protect against cervical cancer.

"This contribution.will help to save the lives of many women by immunizing them against human papillomavirus infections," WHO Director-General Lee Jong-Wook said in statement issued in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, at the sixth annual WHO Global Vaccine Research Forum.

HPVs, the world's most common sexually transmitted viruses, infect about 70 per cent of sexually active adult populations. While HPV infection clears without treatment in the majority of people, it can develop into chronic infection and, in some women, cause cervical cancer. HPV infections are associated with more than 99 per cent of all cervical cancer cases worldwide and cervical cancer is the leading cause of death from cancer among women in developing countries, according to a WHO release.

The Research Forum held from 12 June to 15 June was co-hosted by the World Health Organization Initiative for Vaccine Research and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).

The grant to WHO is part of a joint international effort with the international Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Harvard University and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH).

IARC, Harvard, and PATH also received grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the four grants together amount to a total $12 million, WHO added.