Facts About the Disease

The Human papillomavirus (HPV) family includes virus "types" that are responsible for a diverse number of human skin ailments including common plantar warts and cervical cancer. HPV Type 16 (HPV-16) , one of approximately 70 different HPVs types, is usually acquired during adulthood and is responsible for many cancerous and precancerous genital condition in women.

Controlling HPV infections is an important public health goal. In 1997 alone, more than 180,000 first-time visits to physicians by adults in the U.S. were due to an HPV-related genital condition. As many as 24,000,000 American men and women have been infected with genital HPV types and between 500,000 and 1,000,000 new infections develop each year. Some experts estimate that as many as 40% to more than 70% of adult Americas may be infected with this virus during their lifetime.

There are no known treatments to cure HPV infection; the only treatments we have available are those that treat the outward symptoms of infections, e.g., warts. For most people, their immune system seems to control or possibly eliminate the infection within one to two years of its beginning. It is unclear whether previously infected men and women become more likely to show active HPV infection as they age. We know the immune system becomes less efficient as we age and that this factor might contribute to development of HPV infection among older people.

Irrespective of age, on occasion, the immune system is unable to eliminate or control HPV infection and "persistent HPV infection" develops. It is possible that persistent (HPV) infection may influence whether precancerous and cancerous changes develop in infected cells.

Sexually transmitted diseases in modern society?

Although men or women who have multiple sex partners are at greater risk for becoming infected with a HPV, even currently monogamous individuals can become infected with a genital-specific HPV. HPV infections can remain unresolved for as many as two years and partners who are exclusively monogamous currently may have become infected with the virus during a prior sexual relationship. Many of HPV-infected men and women are silently infected; they have no evident symptoms of the disease and are at risk for infecting their new, monogamous partner.

We do not clearly understand the factors that influence how readily HPV is transmitted from one partner to another, nor why some partners develop symptoms (e.g., genital warts or abnormal Pap tests) of infection relatively quickly while other partners never become aware of any symptoms.