The HPV virus is frightening to contemplate. But protection is available for those girls and young women willing to get a simple shot in the arm.
Human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease, causes 99 percent of all cases of genital warts and cervical cancer in women. Today, local doctors are recommending a relatively new vaccine which they say could reduce incidence of cervical cancer by more than 60 percent if all females were to be vaccinated.
The virus is much less dangerous to men, affecting only 1 percent of them — although those who are affected can also contract various forms of cancer, according to Holly Nath, a doctor in the Obstetrics & Gynecology department at Camino Medical Group in Mountain View.
The virus, spread through touch and sexual contact, has infected approximately 75 to 85 percent of sexually active men and women, according to a pamphlet Nath gives to her patients. It is one of the most common STDs in the world, affecting nearly 5.5 million people each year.
Approximately 90 percent of women with the virus have no symptoms, helping to explain why it spreads so quickly. But the virus can result in genital warts and abnormal cervical cells, which can in turn lead to cancer.
Help available
Doctors from Camino Medical Group and El Camino Hospital say that Gardasil and Cervarix — two vaccinations that were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 — significantly reduce the number of patients with HPV.
“Most OB/GYNs feel comfortable with the safety of the drug and would vaccinate their own daughter,” Nath said.
The vaccinations are administrated three times over six months, and cost $125 per dose without insurance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, totaling $375 for all three shots. Most major insurance companies cover the shot.
There is no research that shows the vaccination works on men. But Nath recommends girls and women between 9 and 26 receive the vaccination. Doctors normally stop vaccinating women after 26, because there is a large likelihood that older females have been exposed to the virus.
“Women after 26 tend to have multiple partners. The vaccine is designed to get people before they start having sex,” Nath said.
There are 100 different strains of the virus, according to Dr. Janet Pulskamp, an OB/GYN at El Camino Hospital. The Gardasil vaccine protects women from two strains of the virus that cause 70 percent of cervical cancer, and from two strains of the virus that cause 90 percent of genital warts.
“It is still not 100 percent,” Pulskamp said. “The only way to prevent HPV is no sexual contact.”
Side effects
Nath said the shot can cause bruising, a headache or even fainting. Six percent of patients have more serious reactions, and there have been two cases of paralysis. Some patients also experience an allergic reaction to the vaccination.
Meanwhile, there is some controversy surrounding the vaccination, Pulskamp said, “Some people believe that if you give the vaccination to girls it gives them the license to have sex. Studies show this is not true.”
If a person does contract the virus, there is an 80 percent chance the patient will clear the virus after two years, according to Nath.
In addition to the vaccination, both doctors said that condoms can help prevent the virus from spreading. But they do not provide a 100 percent protection.
Yearly visits with the gynecologist are also recommended for sexually active girls and women in order to screen for abnormal cells. If a Pap smear comes back abnormal, doctors perform a colposcopy and biopsy of the cervix. Nath said this is not invasive and “patients can go back to work” afterwards.
“If the results are severely abnormal, then the doctor performs a more extensive biopsy,” she said. “Approximately 1 percent of these patients can go on to develop cervical cancer.”
Since the drugs are relatively new, doctors do not know their long-term effects. But according to a study by Merck, the maker of Gardasil, 98 percent of vaccinated women were protected against cervical pre-cancers, and 100 percent of women tested were protected from genital warts from two strains over a three-year period.
