March 1, 2017 – HPV in Men

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Anchor lead: The rate of human papilloma virus infection in men is quite high, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Human papilloma viruses, abbreviated HPV, cause cancer, with some viral strains more problematic than others. Now a new study looks at a national sample and finds that almost half of men were infected. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, describes the findings.

Nelson: They looked at 1800 men aged 18 to 59, 45% were positive for human papilloma virus. If you looked at men who were otherwise eligible for vaccination, 7% of them were positive for at least one strain that would have been prevented had they been vaccinated. The vaccine that captures 9 HPV strains, 15% would have been positive for one of those so they would have been protected. In the end only 11% of the men who were eligible for vaccine had gotten vaccinated. :30

Nelson says cervical, anal and penile cancers as well as some cancers of the mouth and throat are caused by HPV, so vaccination is beneficial for all. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.