ATLANTA -- Television commercials informing women about cervical cancer has been on the air for the past several weeks.

“About 10 women a day, die every day in the United States from cervical cancer and so it’s unfortunately even with PAP smears and screening available, it’s still a very big killer of women,” says Emory OB/GYN, Dr. Kevin Ault.

The Human Papillomavirus of HPV is the main culprit in causing cervical cancers. HPV is the most common transmitted sexual disease in the U.S. with an estimated 20 million people infected every year.

The vaccine approved by the FDA is called Gardasil and it offers protection from four types of HPV viruses.

“It’s a surface protein, it’s not a live vaccine like mumps or measles or other vaccines you might be familiar with,” explains Dr. Ault.

The vaccines would be administered in 3 shots over 6 months. A CDC panel will determine who will get the vaccine. Studies have girls as young as nine could receive it and women up to the age of 26.

“Side effects are sore arms, as you might predict, headaches were very common in women that received the dummy shot, the placebo, or the active shot, but when you deal with women who are young, they are healthy anyway, you expect a very low incidence of side effects,” says Dr. Ault.

And while the vaccine is a major breakthrough in the prevention of cervical cancer, Dr. Ault says it will take a world wide vaccination program in order for cervical cancer rates to decrease. But he does believe the vaccine will have a more immediate impact.

“You’d expect to see a decrease in abnormal PAP smears, precancerous changes, which affect hundreds of thousands of women in the United States every year and eventually, cervical cancer.