MELBOURNE, Australia — Cervical cancer could be eliminated in Australia within the next two decades because of a government program to vaccinate children against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus, according to a new report.

The study, published this week in The Lancet Public Health, found that by 2028, fewer than four women in every 100,000 could be diagnosed with cervical cancer annually in Australia — effectively eliminating the disease as a public health problem. And by 2066, the researchers say, less than one woman per year could receive that diagnosis.

“Australia is on track to become the first country to eliminate cervical cancer,” said Karen Canfell, a cancer epidemiologist and the director of Cancer Research at Cancer Council NSW, the organization which led the study. “I think this shows the way forward for other countries.”

Australia’s national health care system first introduced the vaccination program in 2007 as a cost-free three-dose course for teenage girls. In 2013, the program was expanded to school-age boys, who can carry and transmit the virus, and develop other forms of cancer. According to the Cancer Council Australia, the vaccination has led to a 77 percent reduction in the types of HPV most responsible for cervical cancer. Australia now has one of the lowest cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates in the world.