BY KEVIN AULT, MD
- Associate Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Emory University School of Medicine and a physician at Emory Healthcare.
Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are a group of more than 100 viruses. Some HPV types cause non-cancerous warts on the hands and feet, while other types can be sexually transmitted and cause noncancerous warts on the genitals and the cervix. A few “high-risk” HPV types are the main cause of cervical cancer.
About 6 million new genital HPV infections occur each year in the United States. Most of these don’t have any symptoms and go away without treatment over a few years. Sometimes HPV infection can linger for many years as either a benign or a cancer-causing infection.
According to the National Cancer Institute, more than 11,000 women in the United States (2007) are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year and nearly 4,000 die from it. Rates for cervical cancer in Fulton County are twice the US average. Worldwide,