The world's first cervical-cancer vaccine went on sale Monday in Australia.

The vaccine, called Gardasil, protects women against four strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) that causes about 70 percent of cervical cancers.

It's recommended for women aged 12-26, and patients have three injections over six months.

In clinical trials involving over 20,000 mostly sexually active women around the world, Gardasil was 100-per-cent effective in preventing cervical cancers and 99-per-cent effective in preventing two types of cervical warts.

The creator of the world's first anti-cancer vaccine, Ian Frazer, said he hoped Gardasil would feature in nationwide immunisation programmes by 2008.

"I look forward to a world where cervical cancer will no longer kill young women and where, like smallpox, the only place it'll be found will be in history books," he said.

Sydney-based gynaecological oncologist Gerry Wain, head of the city's cervical-screening programme, described the breakthrough as "a paradigm shift in the management of women's health".

"We've been managing very well at preventing cervical cancer with cervical screening up to now with pap tests but this gives us an additional method of preventing this terrible disease," said Wain.