Does HPV cause cancer?

Does HPV cause cancer?

HPV is a general term that refers to a virus family with lots of subtypes. While some HPV types cause warts on the body, some others lead to cancer by disrupting the structure of the cells over time. HPV infection most commonly causes cervical cancer. Besides, anal cancers, penile cancer, and some oral and throat cancers are also related to HPV.

 

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.