December 11, 2017 – HPV Infection

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Anchor lead: Just how common is human papilloma virus infection? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Human papilloma virus, abbreviated HPV, is known to cause cancer. Both cervical cancer in women and cancers of the mouth and throat in both sexes are most often related to HPV infection. Now a new study looks at just how prevalent the infection is. Carole Fahkry, an HPV expert at Johns Hopkins, describes the data.

Fahkry: What it really showed is that oral HPV infection is more common among men than women and that it increases with increasing sexual exposure. Among vaccinated men the rates of oral HPV are lower, than among unvaccinated individuals. They also showed that oral HPV infection increases in people who have genital HPV infection. They also showed which is somewhat novel, that among people who have same sex partners infection is increased.  :32

Fahkry notes that risk factors for infection are well-known and point the way to intervention. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.