Article Medically Reviewed By:
Marie Savard, MD
Internist, author, ABC News Medical Contributor Philadelphia, PA
Overview
What Is It?
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is a virus causes no symptoms but can cause cervical cancer.
Chances are you have been exposed to the human papillomavirus (HPV) and didn't even know it. In fact, it is estimated that at least 75 percent of the reproductive-age population has been infected with one or more types of genital HPV, and up to 6.2 million new infections occur each year. As many as 20 million Americans are estimated to be infected with the genital form of the virus.
The good news: In the vast majority of cases, the virus causes no symptoms or health problems and will go away on its own when a healthy immune system clears the infection. The bad news: A persistent infection with high-risk strains of HPV occurs in about 5 percent of women and causes nearly all cases of cervical cancer, which the American Cancer Society estimates affected an estimated 11,070 women in 2008, killing about 3,870.
In many ways, the issues raised by HPV infection are similar to those raised by genital herpes. Both often have no symptoms; both can cause medical problems in some women; and both have become widespread in this country. Like herpes, persistent HPV is incurable, though some forms of HPV disappear, and it is not yet known whether they completely go away or merely enter a dormant stage, like herpes.
Unlike herpes, however, HPV causes cancer in a small percentage of women and men. In addition to cervical cancer, HPV can also occasionally cause cancers of the vulva, penis, throat and tonsil area and anus.
There are more than 100 types of HPV. The HPV family of viruses is called papillomavirus because they tend to cause warts, or papillomas—benign (noncancerous) tumors. Warts may appear on the hands and feet or on the genital area. The strains of HPV that cause warts to grow on hands and feet, however, are rarely the same type that causes warts in the genital area. More than 30 strains are called genital strains and are spread through sexual contact. Only 15 are associated with cervical cancer; these are called high-risk strains (HPV 16 and 18 cause 70 percent of cancers). Two low-risk strains of HPV—HPV 6 and 11—cause 90 percent of genital warts, though they have no risk of causing cervical cancer.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved an HPV vaccine, called Gardasil, which can protect women against four HPV types—the two most common high-risk strains (HPV 16 and 18) and the two most common low-risk types (HPV 6 and 11). The vaccine, however, should be given before an infection occurs, ideally, before a girl becomes sexually active. The vaccine is approved for girls as young as nine and is routinely recommended for girls 11 and 12 years of age. It may also be given to women ages 13 to 26 who did not receive it when they were younger, but will not work against the particular HPV type if a woman i...
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