How common is HPV? What percent of the adult population gets it?
The studies vary, but it is believed that 50-70% of all young sexually active adults will encounter this virus in their lifetime. And we are not just talking about a contagious disease. We are talking about cancer of the cervix. There are many countries in the world where there is poor access to screening and care where this will have an enormous impact some day. What else is related to HPV? Besides cancer, veneral warts are very unpleasant and the treatment of these warts is very unpleasant, and potentially expensive, and then there is the STI (sexually transmitted infection) issue to deal with in the relationship. Prevention is such an opportunity. This is really the 1st vaccine to prevent cancer as well as a whole host of other diseases. Is there a way to include screening for HPV as part of every adult’s routine checkup as we do for hypertension and cholesterol, etc.? The PAP smear is an effective HPV screen for cervical abnormalities. It is not felt to be logical or effective to s
