Do HPV Types 16 and 18 necessarily cause cancer?

Do HPV Types 16 and 18 necessarily cause cancer?

No. In many people infected with the HPV virus, the virus disappears from the body within two years on average thanks to the immune system. Only in a small group of people, the virus stays permanently. This group of patients is under the risk of developing cancer. However, thanks to close follow-up and controls, it is possible to diagnose the cancers at an early stage and completely clear them.

 

What is HPV?

HPV is the abbreviation for a virus family called Human Papillomavirus. There are more than 170 types of HPV identified so far. Around 40 of them cause diseases in human beings when sexually transmitted.

Most HPV infections do not show any symptoms and disappear from the body in around two years. However, sometimes genital warts occur due to HPV infection and these warts need treatment, and sometimes lesions may occur, which may turn into cancer later.

 

How is HPV transmitted?

HPV is mostly transmitted due to close skin-to-skin touching. As it is often seen in genital areas, it is also accepted as a sexually transmitted disease.

There are very limited publications on that a person may rarely be infected with HPV due to indirect contact in places such as around the pools or showers used by many people. It is generally known that HPV is a tenuous virus and cannot survive for long outside the body.