Human Papillomavirus Awareness
April 17, 2008 by Scott Wharton
Filed under Men's Health
What is Human Papillomavirus? The best way I can explain it to you, is to let someone else do it for me. In this case, I’ll let the great
Mayoclinic.com do it:
HPVinfection is a condition contracted from one of a group of more than 100 related human papillomaviruses (HPVs).
Each type of HPV has the potential to cause an abnormal growth on a particular part of your body — genital warts and other lesions on or near your genitals or anus, common warts on your hands, plantar warts on your feet, and warts and other lesions in your mouth and upper respiratory system.
HPV infections are common. It’s estimated that close to 25 million people in the United States have HPV infections that can cause genital warts and related lesions.
Some types of HPV infection can cause cancer of the cervix, the narrow outlet of the uterus. Other HPV infections may cause other cancers of the genitals, anus, mouth or throat. However, not all infections with these dangerous types lead to cancer.
Treatments for HPV infections primarily focus on the removal of warts or lesions that cause embarrassment or discomfort and the removal of lesions that pose a risk of developing into cancerous (malignant) growths. A vaccine may prevent the most common types of HPV infection associated with either genital warts or cervical cancer.
What this short excerpt does not really explain all that well is that men can carry the virus and never even know it. When transmitted to women through sexual intercourse, the virus can have make conception difficult or impossible and can lead to removal of the Uterus if cancer is found in the Uterus. There are HPV vaccines to vaccinate women at young ages to prevent HPV, but I think it would be just as important to vaccinate young men as well.
In an effort to spread HPV awareness the website TuneinHPV.com offers readers to tell their story in text or video. To spread the word about HPV and make people aware of the virus. It’s not the worst sexually transmitted disease out there, but it’s one that is just as preventable as the others. Below are a few links to learn more about HPV.
Http://tuneinhpv.com
HPV at Wikipedia
Mayoclinic on HPV
