The UK Department of Health has contracted pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to supply the cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix for a national human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme.

As part of the UK campaign to prevent cervical cancer, girls aged between 12 and 13 years old will be given the vaccine starting from September 2008, which is predicted to prevent approximately 70 per cent of cervical cancers.

However, the decision has received critical response from some experts, claiming the Department of Health has opted for the wrong vaccine.

Julie Bentley, chief executive of fpa, said: "While we of course welcome the introduction of a nationwide vaccine programme to prevent cervical cancer, it is difficult to understand why the Department of Health has missed a huge opportunity to protect an entire generation of young women against genital warts by not choosing the Gardasil vaccine.

"Genital warts is the second most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK after chlamydia. Selecting the Gardasil vaccine would've been a huge preventative measure in terms of health and financial costs to the NHS."

The government will also offer the vaccine to girls up to the age of 18 as part of a two-year catch-up programme. Smear testing will also continue after the vaccine has been introduced.

So far, researchers have identified over 100 different subtypes of the human papillomavirus.

According to GSK, studies have shown that 3,000 women on average are diagnosed with cervical cancer and approximately 1,000 die from the disease each year in the UK. Cervical cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death among women worldwide, killing one woman every two minutes.

Cervarix was approved in Europe in September last year.

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