Human Papilloma...What?!?

Human Papillomavirus, aka HPV.

We've all heard of it and seen the commercials and read the ads...but what really is HPV? As I was writing my future post about the HPV vaccine I realized it needed some background on vaccines in general and about HPV. So here is a short and sweet summary of HPV.

Did you know there are almost 200 different known strains of HPV? I emphasize "known" because there may be 200 more that have yet to be discovered. Out of these 200, about 40 of them are known to be transmitted through sexual contact. Also about 90% (eeegh don't quote me on that number) of those 200 strains are pretty much harmless. For example, HPV Types 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10 and 63 cause some form of common warts.

However, some have been associated with much more serious cases. HPV Types 6, 11, 42, and 44 can lead to genital warts. Also, about 16 types have been been associated with cervical cancer. The most "high-risk" of these cervical cancer-associated HPV's are Types 16, 18, 31 and 45.

Now although it seems as though the chance of contracting one of these serious types of HPVs is very low, let me remind you that that was exactly what people though about HIV and AIDS back in the '70's. Truth is, there isn't enough research to predict the exact probability of contracting one of these HPV strains.

So moral of the story...get vaccinated (my next blog post will have more info on that) or use a frieken condom!