more on the HPV

I know I have been going on about the Human Papilloma Virus quite a lot in recent weeks, but I am currently studying "Infectious Diseases" and have just been doing about "sexually transmitted diseases" so I'm coming in contact with it daily (...hopefully not actually in physical contact with it though!)

There has also been some talk amongst the doctors about the new HPV vaccine that I was yabbering on about a while ago. (Clinical trials show a 100% success rate at preventing girls from getting infected with the HPV6, 11, 16, 18 virus and so stops them from developing genital warts and cervical & vulval cancer (almost all of which is caused by these virus subtypes)).

So anyway, I was just doing some online Q&As for my sexually transmitted diseases course and we had a case study to work through about a woman with had genital warts due to the HPV virus. and one of the questions is "How are the HPV viruses transmitted" and here is the model answer that the doctors give:

The virus is transmitted as a result of direct contact with epithelial lesions, epithelial surfaces infected with the virus with no apparent clinical warts, or contact with genital secretions containing infective virus.
This usually occurs during intimate sexual contact, but may be as a result of mother to child transmission or digital contact during bathing etc. particularly in pre-pubertal children.

I just thought that was very interesting that they mentioned the possibility of childhood infection via non-sexual contact.

I have no real purpose in mentioning this!
I just came across it and thought it was interesting and seeing as I have mentioned the HPV virus on my blog a couple of times recently I thought I would share what I found!!


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