The human papillomavirus (HPV) is more common in men than in women. Research conducted in the USA, Brazil and Mexico shows that every second man is infected with it – informs the latest Lancet.
This has been demonstrated by research carried out by Anna Giuliano of the Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida. The scientist and her team examined 1.100 men aged 18 to 70 living in the Americas. She found that 50 percent. of them are infected with different types of human papillomavirus, of which there are over 100.
As much as 6 percent Each year, surveyed men are infected with only one, but an extremely dangerous variant of the HPV 16 virus. Along with another type of this germ – HPV 18 – is included in the so-called high-risk viruses causing cervical cancer in women. Both germs contribute to the development of as much as 70 percent. cases of this dangerous disease.
The infection occurs sexually, i.e. as in the case of venereal diseases. Most people become infected before the age of 28, often in the first years after sex begins. Only 20 percent. women become infected after the age of fifty.
Most HPV infections are harmless. Generally, it is asymptomatic and resolves spontaneously within one year, at the latest two years. However, it spreads easily because it can be transferred to another person even when there are no symptoms, such as warts (fleshy growths around the genitourinary organs, without any neoplastic features).
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Both sexes are likely to be infected equally with HPV, but it is more common in men. According to Anna Giuliano, this is due to the women’s immune system, which is better able to eliminate the virus from the body. However, if the high-risk virus is not inactivated, especially in younger women, after 20-30 years it can lead to the so-called intraepithelial neoplastic lesion, which initiates the development of cancer.
To prevent this, two HPV vaccines (Gardasil and Cervarix) are used in girls and women between 11 and 26 years of age. In the US, Gardasil is approved for use in boys, although it is not yet recommended. In December 2010, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only approved the indication that it can be used in both sexes to prevent anal cancer, which is also caused by HPV.
The papillomavirus can also cause other malignancies: of the mouth, head and neck, as well as the penis in men, and the vagina and vulva in women. Anal cancer is more common in people who have anal sex. In turn, the risk of oral cavity cancer, as recently reported by PAP, is increased by frequent oral sex.
HPV viruses known as low risk are less dangerous. More than 30 types of such papillomaviruses cause infections of the urogenital organs of men and women. The most common are HPV 6 and 11 viruses, responsible for 90 percent. cases of genitourinary warts (PAP)