Human Papilloma Virus

Ronnie Mark Manaog

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted virus and infection in the US. You can
have HPV without ever knowing it because the virus often produces no signs or symptoms that
you will notice, and the immune response to clear it is not a process that you will be aware of. If
you test positive for HPV, there is no sure way to know when you were infected with HPV, or
who gave it to you. A person can have HPV for many years, even decades, before it is detected
or it develops into something serious like a cancer. In the vast majority of infected people, even
with a high-risk version of HPV known to cause cancers, they will not develop cancer. Testing
positive for an HPV infection does not mean that you or your partner is having sex outside of
your relationship. It is believed to have long periods of inactivity or dormancy that may even
cover decades; these are periods of time that you will test negative for it. Sexual partners who
have been together for a while tend to share all types of sexual infections. Typically, if one
partner has a fungal infection like Candida, the other partner has it as well, even though they
may appear to be asymptomatic. The same is true of other common sexual infections like
Chlamydia, a bacterial infection. HPV viral infections also are commonly shared. This means
that the partner of someone who tests positive for HPV likely has HPV already, even though
they may have no signs or symptoms. Like most Americans, their immune system will
customarily clear it in under 2 years. Condoms may lower your chances of contracting or
passing the virus to your sexual partners if used all the time and the right way. However, HPV
can infect areas that are not covered by a condom- so condoms may not fully protect against
HPV.
HPV is the leading cause of oropharyngeal cancers; primarily the tonsils, tonsillar crypt,
the base of the tongue (the very back of the mouth and part of what in lay terms might be
called a part of the throat), and a very small number of fronts of the mouth, oral cavity cancers.
HPV16 is the version most responsible, and affects both males and females. More males than
females will develop oropharyngeal cancers. This understanding was elucidated and the reason
revealed for it in a published study by Gillison et. al. Through conventional genital sex, females
acquire infection early in their sexual experiences, and rapidly within very few partners,
seroconvert that infection into a systemic antibody that protects them through life. Males take
a far greater number of sexual partners to seroconvert an infection into a systemic protective
antibody. This increased number of partners and exposure before the development of a
protective antibody against the invading virus is most likely the reason that more males will
later in life develop oropharyngeal cancers than females.