Last updated on September 27th, 2020 at 11:09 am
I keep making the same point over and over again, so I hope I don’t bore my regular readers. There are so few ways to actually prevent cancer, and one of the best is to prevent an HPV or human papillomavirus infection, with an underused vaccine. This simple vaccine can prevent so many cancers.
Genital and oral human papillomavirus (HPV) are the most common sexually transmitted infections (STI) in the USA. There are more than 150 strains or subtypes of HPV that can infect humans, although only 40 of these strains are linked to one or more cancers. HPV is generally transmitted from personal contact during vaginal, anal or oral sex.
Although the early symptoms of HPV infections aren’t serious, those infections are closely linked to many types of cancers in men and women. According to current medical research, here are some of the cancers that are linked to HPV:
These are all dangerous and disfiguring cancers that can be mostly prevented by the HPV cancer vaccine. HPV is believed to cause nearly 5% of all new cancers across the world, making it almost as dangerous as tobacco with respect to cancer.
The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) just issued a report that examined human papillomavirus infection in Americans from 2011-2014. They found the following:
- During 2011–2014, prevalence of any oral human papillomavirus (HPV) for adults aged 18–69 was 7.3%; high-risk HPV was 4.0%.
- Overall, prevalence of any and high-risk oral HPV was lowest among non-Hispanic Asian adults; any oral HPV was highest among non-Hispanic black adults.
- Prevalence of any and high-risk oral HPV was higher in men than women except for high-risk HPV among Asian adults.
- During 2013–2014, prevalence of any and high-risk genital HPV for adults aged 18–59 was 45.2% and 25.1% in men and 39.9% and 20.4% in women, respectively.
- Prevalence of any and high-risk genital HPV was lower among non-Hispanic Asian and higher among non-Hispanic black than both non-Hispanic white and Hispanic men and women.
As I mentioned above, most strains of HPV are not related to cancer. However, according to this data, almost 23% of US adults, ages 18-59, had a type of HPV that increased the risk of certain cancers by a significant amount. Furthermore, around 42% of adults have any type of genital HPV.
An important aspect of this study is that it examined human papillomavirus infections in both men and women – previous studies on HPV concentrated on teen girls and younger women, which found a lower prevalence of the higher risk types of HPV. This ties closely to findings that certain HPV-related cancer rates have been increasing in the USA.
Again, the human papillomavirus infection is easily prevented by the HPV vaccine, called Gardasil. Unfortunately, the massive propaganda and myths against Gardasil, not based on any science and easily refuted, have done a lot to suppress the uptake of the anti-cancer vaccine.
I just hope these kind of studies impress people that the vaccine is an important tool in preventing some dangerous cancers. The HPV vaccine blocks HPV infections which can help prevent HPV-related cancers. Please get vaccinated – it might save your life.
