Cervical cancer cases have halved worldwide in the ten years since a vaccine to fight the disease was introduced. A decade ago today Professor Ian Frazer introduced the vaccine which, in his words, could eradicate cancers caused by human papilloma virus (HPV) within 40 years.

That first vaccine was administered in Brisbane. Ten years and 170 million doeses later, the number of new cervical cancers reported has halved, The BBC reports. Not bad for something the naysayers said couldn't possibly work; or that would never have a market.

Prof. Frazer, now the chief executive of the Translational Research Institute, and his colleague, the late Dr Jian Zhou, proved the detractors wrong.

"There was plenty of scepticism," Prof Frazer said.

"But we ignored the objections."

"There was increasing interest around the fact the virus was very common and it caused cancer."

And that's what they focussed on.

As well as protecting against cervical cancer, the vaccine protects against cancers in the throat and mouth in both men and women caused by HPV, a common virus which lives on our skin and areas of the body including the mouth, genital areas and anus. It is most often transmitted through vaginal and anal sex well as through oral sex.

Prof. Frazer said the journey toward that day in 2006 when the vaccine was first administered started in the early 1080's.

He said it was then that the link between the HPV virus and cancer was identified. "From there, it was about 1985 we worked out how the body fought off the virus and in 1990 we developed the vaccine."

Over the next five years, the two professors worked with commercial companies to determine how the process could be scaled up to undertake the trials. "The trials took place between 1998 and 2004 - and then in 2006 the first vaccine was administered."

Sadly, Dr Zhou died in 1999.

"He was a major part of this but he didn't live to see the vaccine finally administered."

"Yes, it is certainly emotional, but his wife, Xiao Yi Sun, has been brought along for the whole journey."

Dr Zhou's legacy continues to be honoured, with he and Prof Frazer winning the European Inventor Award in 2015. Prof Frazer told the BBC there had already been a 90 percent reduction in infections reported in Australia in the 10 years the program had been running.

In spite of the success, there are still some with reservation about administering the vaccine to children for fear of it encouraging promiscuity or because of safety concerns. "In countries like the US where the vaccine isn't so widely taken up, that's a little bit disappointing because cervical cancer still kills several thousand women in the US, " Prof Frazer said.

He said there was also the challenge of more than 250.000 people who die from cervical cancer in the developing world.

Prof Frazer said researchers were now working on broadening the scope of the vaccine from protecting against two common strains of the virus, to protecting against nine common strains. He is confident that will eventually "get rid of" all cancers caused by the virus.

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