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What Is the History of Human Papillomavirus?

The human papillomavirus is commonly referred to as HPV. It is the most sexually transmitted infection and can cause genital warts, cervical cancer and other HPV-related cancers.

  1. Educating the Millions

    • According to the American Social Health Association, HPV infects about 5.5 million people every year. A great cost has been put into education about the disease and prevention of the disease with regular Pap smears.

    Cervical Cancer Conncection

    • The connection of HPV and cervical cancer wasn't an easy link to find. HPV was part of a series of animal tumor viruses and well-known because of their infectious nature. Scientists discovered that HPV had many strains and had different types: low-risk types like genital warts and high-risk types like cervical cancer.

    Low-Risk and High-Risk

    • Genital warts is low-risk because its symptoms are quite easy to spot. Cervical cancer is high-risk because it doesn't have many symptoms until it's fairly advanced. Researchers and doctors believe that preventative measures are the best way of not getting cervical cancer.

    Treatment

    • When researchers found the link between HPV and cervical cancer, they began trying to find a treatment or cure for the virus. Researchers had been trying to find a vaccine for cervical cancer for 70 years.

    Vaccine

    • Because of the cancer's relation to HPV, research had gone in the direction of developing an HPV vaccine. Recently, the HPV vaccine Gardasil has made its way into doctors' offices. The vaccine is given to patients for preventative measures against HPV and has had a high success rate.

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