A study out yesterday in The Lancet by Moffitt Cancer Center researcher Anna Giuliano, Ph.D., and her colleagues finds that 50 percent of men ages 18 to 70 in Brazil, Mexico, and the U.S. have genital infection with human papillomavirus, or HPV. HPV is the virus that causes cervical cancer in women. It also causes warts and cancer of the genitals and anus in both men and women. Over the past several years, researchers have realized that the virus can also cause cancer of the head and neck.
Aimee R. Kreimer, Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute, estimates that about 65 percent of the approximately 8,000 cancers of the oropharynx (tonsils and base of the tongue) seen in the U.S. in 2010 were from HPV infection; 80 percent of these are in men. The rates for HPV-associated cancers like these are increasing; for sites like the mouth and larynx that are associated with tobacco and alcohol use, the rates are decreasing (though still too high since too many people still smoke and abuse alcohol).
An infection rate of 50 percent for a virus that can cause cancer sounds scary. But knowing a few more facts about HPV helps put the risk in perspective. About 90 percent of men and women infected with HPV virus get rid of it on their own within about two years. There are many different strains of HPV -- some that cause cancer and some that don't. Only about 6 percent of men have genital infection with HPV 16 -- the strain linked to more than 90 percent of cancers of the head and neck. And only about 0.6 percent of men have HPV 16 in specimens taken from their mouths; what percentage of those men go on to develop head and neck cancer is unknown.
Right now, there are many more questions than answers. How exactly does HPV get from the genitals to the mouth? Oral sex is one obvious answer but the virus may also be spread by the fingers, kissing, or some other unsuspected route. Why does the infection persist in 10 percent of people?
What's urgently needed is some way of detecting the virus early -- the oral equivalent of a Pap smear. Researchers are trying to develop such a test at centers like Johns Hopkins, where earlier this month I interviewed a 64-year-old man whose HPV-linked tongue cancer was picked up only incidentally because he happened to go to an ear, nose, and throat doctor to get ear wax removed. There's got to be a better way of picking up asymptomatic HPV infection of the head and neck - before it progresses to cancer.
Finally, today's study is sure to provoke discussion about whether an HPV vaccine like Gardasil should be routinely recommended by public health officials for males as it is for females. The vaccine covers four strains of HPV, including strain 16, the one most commonly linked to head and neck cancer. Right now, the CDC supports "permissive use" of the vaccine in males 9-26 but stops short of actually recommending its use.
WATCH:
Patricia Yarberry Allen: HPV Risk In Older Women
Evelyn Resh, M.P.H.: Safe Sex: The 411
Leigh Vinocur, M.D.: HPV Vaccine: Why Are So Few People Getting Vaccinated?
Deepak Chopra: Weekly Health Tip: Could You Have HPV?
HPV infection: A cause of cancer in men? - MayoClinic.com
Why Is HPV Vaccine Effective In Men?
Study Says Half of Men May Have HPV Infections - FoxNews.com
Study: HPV linked to head, neck cancers in men - CBS News Video
Half of men may have HPV, study shows - Health - Men's health ...
HIV
Alzheimers
Blindness
Prostate Cancer
It's own set of problems (sores, social alienation, etc)
One drug in 30 years - what a joke?
Please check out these petitions. They have links to the stuff I quote above:
http://www.petition2congress.com/3986/fund-peregrine-pharmaceutical-to-test-bavi-herpes/
http://www.petition2congress.com/3875/decrease-us-unemployment-find-cure-herpes/
http://www.petition2congress.com/3738/increase-herpes-research-funding/
http://www.change.org/petitions/please-increase-herpes-research-funding#?opt_new=t&opt_fb=f
These petitions speak for themselves. They are free and anonymous.
http://disabilitymessage.com/disability/content/human-papillomaviruses-hpv-information
We need to know more about the variety of strains and their pathogenic potential before we release a test on the world.
The disturbing conclusion of these two facts must be that men keep being re-infected with the HPV virus over and over again.
http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org/
I'm sure this article is about getting the vaccine.
I always think its so unfair...women are more likely to catch SDS from hetersexual sex than men are, and have to deal with getting pregnant. Let alone sex without a condom with half of the me or more out there can give you cancer!
FYI...they say 90% of women clear HPV in two years. Women over forty do not clear it as easily...I don't know the percentage but it's significantly lower. The longer highrisk HPV sits around in you the longer it has to cause cancer. If your over forty you have a really high chance of catching a burdensome condition--to say the least--if you sleep with ANY man without a condom.
drag. Men get warts, women get cancer and could die.
Men get much more than warts, and they dominate the HPV16 caused oral cancer population.
This really killed the mood.
Men think of this next time you dont' wanna where a condom...50% chance you have somethign that can cause your woman to get cancer.
If I were a guy that would bother me alot.
HPV at any age:
"Children may become infected with HPV at any time and via various modes of transmissiÂon. Given these realities and possible viral latency, evaluation of the mode of transmissiÂon is extremely challenginÂg. In this study, all infants under age 1 year had innocent transmissiÂon. In this small sample, children older than 6 had a high rate of suspected or proven sexual abuse, and most abused children were girls. However, there are no reliable rules. There is no substitute for careful examinatioÂn and interview. Clinicians must use their judgment, not necessarilÂy to establish sexual abuse, but to determine whether referral to child protective services is indicated.Â"
http://dermatology.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2006/818/1
Same for things like HSV, gonnorhea and other similarly transmitted diseases really.
Please read the study. It's not either birth or sex. Children at different ages have HPV even though sexual abuse is ruled out.
The whole HPV argument is based on teenage sex. This study proves HPV can be present in all people at any age.
A high percentage of men and women get infected with various strains of HPV. Some through intercourse, some in other ways, so a condom isn't enough. Some of the strains cause all the strains of cervical cancer.The same cancer causing strains can cause oral and anal cancer. Different strains can cause genital warts. And other strains don't seem to do any harm.
Almost all those infected with the cancer causing strains get over the infection completely. A small percentage of those persistently infected develop abnormal cells in the cervic, throat or anus. A very small percentage of those get pre-cancerous lesions. A percentage of those develop cancer. This process most often takes decades. In the US, that amounts to 4000 cervical cancer deaths a year.
I don't know the percentages of oral and anal cancer, but for cervical cancer -- unless you are infected wth specific strains of HPV then you simply can't get cervical cancer.
Gardasil protects against infections with the strains causing 70% of cervical cancer and high percentage of genital warts. Cervarix protects against strains causing 80% of cancer, but does not prevent genital warts.
A new version of Gardasil on the market in 2011 or 2012 protects against strains causing 90?% of cancer.
While it is correct that many HPV infections are cleared by the immune system within two years, it is now being reported that males do not clear the infection the same as females do and it appears that an infection in males can persist indefinitely. This would be another reason male HPV vaccination would make sense. Further, until one's immune system has cleared the virus, the infected person can infect others.
It is also entirely incorrect to say as you did that "unless you are infected with specific strains of HPV then you simply can't get cervical cancer." Wrong, wrong, wrong. At this point, 14 strains of HPV have been identified as associated with cervical cancer. And while it looks like HPV causes the majority of cases of cervical cancer, there are other agents that can cause cervical cancer --- such as radiation exposure, chemical exposure in agriculture or manufacturing, the drug DES (diethylstilberstrol) and it looks like HIV compounds the effects of HPV.
While it appears that Gardasil will protect against cervical cancers caused by the involved strains of HPV, we may not know its full effectiveness until the vaccinated population reaches the ages of 40-55 when most cervical cancer is diagnosed. Whether or not a woman has been vaccinated, an annual pelvic examination with a Pap test is needed --- not only for early detection of cervical neoplasma, but for detection of vulvar carcinoma and other gynecologic neoplasms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardasil
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"Of course, the fact that they all had the shots could be coincidental,"
Clinical trial before approval showed the same rate of bad events happening to those given the vaccine and those given the placebo. The active US monitoring system, VSD, didn't find ANYevents that happened more often in those vaccinated than those who did not.
I admit I don't understand the math. But, unlike VSD, the passive reporting system VAERS did not have higher reports for any adverse except for fainting (so make sure they sit down for 15 minutes) and blood clots. The reports of blood clots did not show up in VSD and seem related to risk factors. See http://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/vaccines/hpv/gardasil.html
What your mother thinks is happening is not --- but your getting all the possible results of HPV is real. So get vaccinated.