On Thursday, federal health officials informed that 25 percent of teen girls in the United States had received the vaccine against cervical cancer.

The government’s study was aimed at gathering data on the vaccination rates for Gardasil, a vaccine designed to prevent infection with HPV types 16, 18, 6 and 11, produced by Merck&Company. HPV types 16 and 18 are estimated to currently account for 70% of the cervical cancer cases.

Gardasil is administered to women in three-shot series that target protecting them from the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV).

The recent research only looked at young women aged between 13 and 17 years old, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention having based their results on telephone surveys that had been done in 2007.

Of the approximately 10 million girls who fall within the aforementioned age frame, a number of 2.5 million ones have been reported to have received at least one of the three vaccine shots.

Although health officials stated they had hoped the rates to have been higher, they also admitted that families might not have had the necessary money or confidence in the vaccine to make their teenage daughters get the shots. Presently, Gardasil is retailing for $375 and there has been no cogent proof that it offers women lifetime immunity from the infection.

Each year in the United States, about 4,000 women die from cervical cancer, while in the United Kingdom, the annual death toll raises to 1,000.

Cervical cancer is the fifth most deadly cancer in women worldwide, affecting 1 in 123 women per year.