What is HPV?

HPV is the human papilloma virus causes all warts in humans.   As such, it is likely a type of virus everyone has had or will have sometime in their life.  There are over 170 different types of HPV and most of them cause no harm beyond the warts we see on our fingers, feet, and other parts of the body.

About 40 of these 170 HPV’s cause warts mainly in the genital area and are considered an STD.  Only these HPV’s go on to cause various types of cancer.  And of these 40, about 9 cause most of the cancer the HPV’s can cause.

So all the warts you see on hands and feet are HPV caused, but not by genital HPV, and cannot go on to cause cancer.

Genital HPV

For the 40 or so types of HPV that can cause warts in the genital area, the virus spreads very easily by sexual contact, any genital contact with any part of the body.  Often virus spread causes no symptoms at all, sometimes a wart will appear.

A recent report, https://nyti.ms/2oaVxOf , cited that about half of all adult Americans are walking around with one of these 40 types of genital HPV’s, so it is by far, the most common STD.

Genital HPV and cancer

For women only, cervical cancer is almost entirely caused by HPV infection.  Two of the 40 genital HPV types are responsible for about 70% of cervical cancers!   So, if you can avoid genital HPV infection, you will very likely never develop cervical cancer.

Cervical cancer is the number one cause of death in young women in the world.  Not so much in the US given the use of the Pap smear which was invented purely to catch cervical cancer early.  It works, so the number of deaths from cervical cancer in the US is much lower than in the world.  Even so, HPV caused cervical cancer kills over 4000 young American women every year.

For men and women, but mostly men, a rising incidence of genital HPV caused throat cancer is appearing.  Today about 25% of mouth and throat cancers are due to genital HPV.

The HPV Vaccine

Today’s HPV vaccine contains 9 types of genital HPV, all dead, and the 9 types most likely to cause cancer.

If you start HPV vaccination before your 15th birthday, two doses will provide all the protection you need.  After that time, you need 3 doses.

The vaccine works.  Everytime we look at a population that got the HPV vaccine, we see genital warts disappear, and infection rates with HPV in the genital area plummet.  Over time it is fairly certain we will see rates of cancer drop for men and women.

The vaccine is safe.  There are of course reports of people having significant side effects.   These events are infrequent, nearly everyone who gets the HPV vaccine does very well.

BOTTOM LINES

1. HPV is a virus that causes common warts, but also genital infections that can cause not just warts, but cancer.
2. HPV infection is wildly common, at least half of young American adults have this virus.
3. HPV causes nearly all cervical cancer, and about 25% of all throat cancer.
4. The HPV vaccine prevents cancer.  We recommend it.  Start before the 15th birthday and a whole course is only two doses.

To your health,
Dr. Arthur Lavin