2008 Woodie Awards
What's up doc?: Human papillomavirus
Life | 4/13/08
What is HPV?
HPV stands for human papillomavirus, which is a virus found in human beings that can cause papilloma, which is one of the medical terms for warts. It can cause warts but it doesn't always cause them. There are about 100 different strains of HPV and about 30 to 40 of those strains can be passed sexually. What that means is any kind of wart that's found on the human body, it could be a plantar wart on your foot, on your nose, on your finger, wherever, is caused by some strain of HPV.
What can be passed sexually is what people usually think of, so technically it is genital HPV. It's a skin disease, so it has nothing to do with body fluids; this is skin to skin contact. Millions of people get HPV, but most have no symptoms. A smaller percentage of people who get HPV get the strain that causes genital warts. The warts have no significant health consequences.
Then an even smaller number of people get infected with what are called high-risk strains of HPV. There are 13 of these strains. Those are the strains that can, in females, be the link to getting cervical cancer. High risk HPV has been associated with cervical, oral and penile cancers.
Is it true that in addition to cervical cancer, HPV has been linked to causing some cancers of the mouth through oral sex?
Yes it has. I was at a health fair a week ago and I asked a dentist about this and he said it was a very hot topic for people who deal with oral cancer. He said, yes, it has been proven that it has been involved with it.
People don't just get cancer from one cause. It is usually a bunch of things going on at the same time. So, for any of these cancers, having the high risk HPV would be necessary, but not sufficient. ...Right now in the world of oral cancer they are trying to figure out exactly how much of a role the high risk types play and what other factors contribute to it. Yes, it has been definitively linked, but is it the single cause? No.
HPV stands for human papillomavirus, which is a virus found in human beings that can cause papilloma, which is one of the medical terms for warts. It can cause warts but it doesn't always cause them. There are about 100 different strains of HPV and about 30 to 40 of those strains can be passed sexually. What that means is any kind of wart that's found on the human body, it could be a plantar wart on your foot, on your nose, on your finger, wherever, is caused by some strain of HPV.
What can be passed sexually is what people usually think of, so technically it is genital HPV. It's a skin disease, so it has nothing to do with body fluids; this is skin to skin contact. Millions of people get HPV, but most have no symptoms. A smaller percentage of people who get HPV get the strain that causes genital warts. The warts have no significant health consequences.
Then an even smaller number of people get infected with what are called high-risk strains of HPV. There are 13 of these strains. Those are the strains that can, in females, be the link to getting cervical cancer. High risk HPV has been associated with cervical, oral and penile cancers.
Is it true that in addition to cervical cancer, HPV has been linked to causing some cancers of the mouth through oral sex?
Yes it has. I was at a health fair a week ago and I asked a dentist about this and he said it was a very hot topic for people who deal with oral cancer. He said, yes, it has been proven that it has been involved with it.
People don't just get cancer from one cause. It is usually a bunch of things going on at the same time. So, for any of these cancers, having the high risk HPV would be necessary, but not sufficient. ...Right now in the world of oral cancer they are trying to figure out exactly how much of a role the high risk types play and what other factors contribute to it. Yes, it has been definitively linked, but is it the single cause? No.
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