Cause of the Human Papilloma Virus
The Human Papilloma Virus, or HPV, is an infection caused by sexual contact, generally during vaginal or anal sex. When a person carrying HPV engages in skin-to-skin genital contact with a sexual partner, the virus can be easily transmitted. Unfortunately, the majority of people carrying the virus are unaware of it; another major cause of this prevalent sexually transmitted infection.
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Significance
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The Human Papilloma Virus is the most common sexually transmitted infection today. While infected people may show symptoms of the virus in the form of genital warts, many women and most men often do not exhibit any symptoms, and continue to pass along and perpetuate the cycle of HPV infection without knowing it. More rarely, women can transmit HPV to their newborn children during vaginal childbirth, but the incidence of this in the U.S. is approximately 1 in 100,000.
Time Frame
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People with HPV generally contract the virus around the age of becoming sexually active, and are more likely to contract and transmit the virus over time as their number of sexual partners mounts. Once someone is infected with HPV, it can take months or even years before lesions or genital warts appear.
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Considerations
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Due to the sometimes long and unpredictable time between HPV infection and clinical detection of the virus, it is not uncommon for people with HPV to transmit it to one or more sexual partners without knowledge of doing so. This can also make it difficult for the person to know who transmitted the virus to them in the first place, as symptoms can appear as long as a couple years after infection. Also, many males with HPV show no signs of the virus, making them more likely to transmit the disease to new partners.
Misconceptions
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While it's widely believed that condoms are 100 percent effective in protecting against sexually transmitted diseases, this isn't always true when it comes to HPV. Currently, condoms' effect on preventing the incidence of HPV is not known, and there have been numerous cases where HPV has arisen even when a condom was used because the virus is contracted through any skin contact around the genitals. Nonetheless, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention note that the use of condoms is linked to lower cervical cancer rates, which are directly related to HPV.
Prevention/Solution
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There are a few means of prevention against HPV infection, including abstinence, condom use, and the recently U.S. government-approved HPV vaccine for women, Gardasil. Additionally, women are encouraged to undergo annual pap smear tests with a gynecologist to screen for strains of the virus which may cause cancer. As there is currently no FDA-approved HPV test for men, consistent condom use is a man's best line of defense against transmitting the virus.
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