One in Four U.S Women Infected with HPV

One in four American women aged from 14 to 59 has HPV - human pappilomavirus, a sexually transmitted disease which in some form might cause cervical cancer, the first broad national estimate shows.

However, only 3.4 of the women under study were found to be infected with one of the four HPV strains that can be prevented by the new vaccine.

According to Dr. Yvonne Collins, an assistant professor of gynecologic cancer at the University of Illinois, this figure does not mean that the new anti-HPV vaccine should be refused.

Though the percentage of women who can be helped by the new vaccine is very small, it corresponds with about 3 million of women - this is a considerable number that cannot be neglected.

Unfortunately there are no figures concerning men, though HPV prevalence is expected to be high among males.

Previous estimates

The number of women infected with HPV strains that are targeted by the vaccine were lower in earlier estimates.

As well there were another figures concerning the overall HPV prevalence among the youngest women (from 14 to 24) the study involved. According to previous estimates their number comprised 7.5 million versus 4.6 million.

The difference between the latest and previous estimates should not be interpreted to mean changes in infection prevalence in recent years. In fact variations are explaned by different study populations as well as by different HPV detection methods used.

The new study is based on vaginal swab specimens from 1,921 women. The report appeared in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.

The vaccine

HPV has dozens of forms, including low-risk forms that only cause genital warts which often do not require any treatment. The same cannot be said about high-risk forms which cause cervical cancer.

About 11,155 U. S women are expected to be diagnosed with cervical cancer this year. About 3,670 women will die from this disease. The worst thing is that figures are much higher worldwide. The biggest number of women died from cervical cancer is found in countries where tests for cervical cancer are not routine.

The new vaccine Merck's Gardsil protects against only two HPV strains that cause cervical cancer and two other strains that cause genital warts.

Vaccines to protect against other HPV strains are being developed.