According to reports, a test that detects the two strains of human papilloma virus, which has the tendency of raising the risk of ‘invasive cervical cancer’ when joined with the Pap test, may be more effective for many women than the Pap test done alone.

Also, for women that are HPV-positive, solely using the HPV test seems to be enough, according to the study author Philip Castle, a researcher at the American Society for Clinical Pathology Institute in Washington, D. C.

However, the study was funded by Roche Molecular Systems, which makes the HPV test, and the researchers examined a DNA-based HPV test, created by Roche as well as approved in 2011 by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration.

Hence, under the cervical cancer screening guidelines issued by the American Cancer Society in 2002 and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2003, it is stated: “Women aged 30 or older should have both a Pap test, also known as a Pap smear, as well as an HPV test”.

Moreover, HPV is said to be majorly a commonly ‘sexually transmitted infection’, and some strains of the virus can result to cervical cancer.