What Does The HPV Shot Have To Do With HPV Disease?
By the age of 50, eighty percent of women are going to test positive for the virus HPV or human papilloma virus on their cervix. HPV is the leading cause of cervical cancer and cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among women worldwide. This is the reason that women raised their voice and challenged science to help women prevent this disease.
HPV is not human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HPV is a virus that has a hundred types. It causes warts on various parts on the body like fingers, legs, toes or feet. There are 40 types that cause genital problems and there are four in the vaccine. They selected these four types because they cause the majority of genital disease: vulvar cancer, vaginal cancer, cervical cancer, anal cancer, penal cancer and genital warts. The virus is spread through skin-to-skin contact and so doesn’t need to be transmitted through sexual intercourse, with babies sometimes being infected by passing through their mother’s vaginal canal.
Because over 70% of teens who are sexually active have HPV, it is best to vaccinate teens before they become sexually active. This is why the age to begin vaccination started so seemingly young, 9. Vaccination before any sexual activity approximated an effectiveness of over 98%.
Along with this vaccine there have been changes made in how OB-Gyns have screened for HPV disease on the cervix in teens. Instead of rushing to do a pap (sampling cells from the cervix), or biopsy (remove tissue from the cervix to evaluate it), Ob-Gyns are now choosing to watch and wait. With no disease the pap is done yearly and with disease the pap is more frequent (6-12 mo) until normal.
A first pap is done three years after the date of first intercourse or at 21 years old. HPV is a very important disease process in the lives of teens and women. Most teens aren’t going to let their parents know before they become sexually active so it’s important to take a page from the hepatits B vaccine, which is also spread through sexual contact, and vaccinate early.
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