Genital human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted virus in the United States.
There are about 40 types of HPV. About 20 million people in the U.S. are infected, and about 6.2 million more get infected each year. HPV is spread through sexual contact.
Most HPV infections don’t cause any symptoms, and go away on their own. But HPV is important mainly because it can cause cervical cancer in women. Every year in the U.S. about 10,000 women get cervical cancer and 3,700 die from it. It is the 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths among women around the world.
HPV is also associated with several less common types of cancer in both men and women. It can also cause genital warts and warts in the upper respiratory tract.
More than 50 percent of sexually active men and women are infected with HPV at sometime in their lives.
There is no treatment for HPV infection, but the conditions it causes can be treated.
The first vaccine approved to prevent cervical cancer targets adolescent girls. It has long been known that certain strains of HPV cause cervical cancer, although it often takes decades after the infection before the cancer first becomes apparent. Screening for cervical cancer by annual Pap smears has been the way to detect cervical cancer at the earliest possible moment to improve chances of cure, but we now have a way to prevent up to 70% of all cervical cancer in women. The infection by HPV is sexually transmitted, with minimal symptoms of infection being common in both males and females; symptoms, when present, are usually detected as painless “venereal warts.” The administration of HPV vaccine to 10-12 year old girls is designed to protect adolescents and young women from this genital infection for several years (at least 10 years, and perhaps up to 30 years) as they develop relationships with young men.
This vaccine is one of the new generation of immunizations designed by “molecular engineering,” uses no live virus, and has NO risk of actually causing infection. The vaccine is made up of proteins that form the outer shell of the virus. The body’s response to this vaccine is remarkable: it is virtually 100% effective in preventing infection by the 4 strains of HPV that make up the vaccine. The safety of this vaccine is also quite impressive, although local reactions at the vaccine injection site (a sore arm), may occur in up to half of the girls immunized.
Three doses of vaccine are required for full protection, and most insurance companies and the government’s Vaccines for Children program cover the rather substantial costs of this new and amazingly effective vaccine. We urge parents to include this vaccine with the others given at 10-12 years of age: the new adolescent vaccine for whooping cough, and the new vaccine for meningococcal infection. It is always better to prevent infection than to face the complications of infection!
